On Jan. 7, 2005, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long-term corporate credit and senior unsecured ratings on France-based IT services group Cap Gemini S.A. to 'BB+' from 'BBB-'. The outlook is negative. All ratings have been removed from CreditWatch, were they were placed on Sept. 9, 2004. At June 30, 2004, the company had €876 million in debt outstanding. The downgrade reflects our expectations that Cap Gemini's margins will not rise quickly enough to sustain the previous rating. We expect the company's operating profit margin to exceed 3% in 2005 (at constant accounting rules and before restructuring expenses) from less than 1% estimated for 2004. Although this would mark a significant improvement, the margin would still be substantially
