Netherlands-based diversified technology group Philips has announced plans to split off its lighting business into a separate legal structure. We see some risk that Philips' overall credit quality may weaken following the spin-off, as the remaining group operations will have less business diversity. We are revising our outlook on Philips to negative and affirming the 'A-/A-2' long- and short-term ratings on the group. The negative outlook reflects the chance of a one-notch downgrade upon the effective spin-off of the lighting business. On Oct. 2, 2014, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Netherlands-based diversified technology group Koninklijke Philips N.V. to negative from stable. At the same time, we affirmed our 'A-/A-2' long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on
