We lowered our long-term unsolicited sovereign rating on the Republic of France to 'AA+' on Jan. 13, 2012. In accordance with our criteria for rating government-related entities, we lowered our long- and short-term ratings on Electricité de France S.A. (EDF) to 'A+/A-1' from 'AA-/A-1+', and removed them from CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed on Dec. 7, 2011. The stable outlook reflects our view that neither a further downgrade of France nor a downward assessment of EDF's stand-alone credit profile would result in a downgrade of EDF. As previously announced on Jan. 17, 2012, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its long- and short-term corporate credit ratings on Electricité de France S.A. (EDF) to 'A+/A-1' from 'AA-/A-1+'. At
