On March 26, 2007, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on Goodyear Tire&Rubber Co. to positive from stable, reflecting the company's announcement on March 23 that it has agreed to sell its Engineered Products business for almost $1.48 billion and our expectation that Goodyear will apply a significant amount of the proceeds to repay debt. Goodyear's financial profile will improve from debt reduction, and a modest upgrade could occur if profitability and cash generation in the company's North American tire business strengthens. We estimate that adjusted debt (taking account of strike-related borrowings repaid in early 2007, the application of pending asset sales and recent OPEB reductions) to a nonstrike impacted EBITDA was around 4.4x, which is
