On April 28, 2009, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term corporate and senior unsecured debt ratings on Italy-based toll road operator Autostrade per l'Italia (ASPI) and its 100% owner Atlantia SpA to 'A-' from 'A' and its short-term corporate credit ratings to 'A-2' from 'A-1'. At the same time, we removed the ratings from CreditWatch negative, where they had been placed on April 9, 2009. The outlook is stable. The downgrade reflects our expectations that Atlantia's debt burden will increase over the next few years amid sluggish operating cash-flow generation and a hefty capital expenditure program, thus preventing the consolidation of credit metrics that we expected for the 'A' rating level. Atlantia is planning to spend about €18
