PARIS (Standard&Poor's) May 7, 2002--Standard&Poor's said today that it has revised its outlook on France-based multi-utility Vivendi Environnement S.A. (VE) to negative from stable, reflecting the credit-quality erosion of parent Vivendi Universal S.A. (VU) (see the press release published on May 6, 2002, on RatingsDirect, Standard&Poor's Web-based credit analysis system). At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its triple-'B'-plus long-term and 'A-2' short-term corporate credit ratings on the company. "The erosion of VU's credit quality and VU's recent statement that it does not envisage any change in its stake in VE in the near term have led to a reduction in 63%-owned VE's flexibility to issue fresh capital, thereby putting pressure on VE's
