On Oct. 5, 2007, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Ecolab Inc. to stable from positive. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its 'A' corporate credit rating and other ratings (see list below) on Ecolab. The outlook revision recognizes Ecolab's strong financial performance but reflects that increased outlays for growth and share repurchases have diminished prospects for further improvement of the financial profile. We do not view the increased outlays as a departure from the company's long-standing financial policies and note that Ecolab's financial performance remains consistent with our expectations at the current ratings. We also note that Henkel KGaA (A/Stable/A-1) has indicated in its public comments that it is considering a divestiture of non-core
