On Oct. 15, 2002, Standard&Poor's assigned its 'BBB+' senior unsecured debt rating to Autozone Inc.'s planned $300 million senior note offering due 2012. The notes will be used to refinance existing debt and for general coporate purposes. Standard&Poor's also affirmed its 'BBB+/A-2' corporate credit and 'A-2' commercial paper ratings on the company and revised its outlook to positive from negative. Approximately $1.2 billion of debt is affected by these actions. The revised outlook reflects the significant operating improvement the company achieved in 2002 and Standard&Poor's belief that Autozone's share repurchase activity will be managed so as not to impact credit measures negatively. A rating upgrade could be considered over the next two years if
