On Aug. 19, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services lowered its corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on Dallas, Texas-based Kimberly-Clark Corp. to 'A' from 'A+', while affirming its 'A-1' short-term commercial paper rating. At the same time, we removed all the ratings from CreditWatch with negative implications, where we placed them on July 15, 2008. The outlook is stable. As of June 30, 2008, the company had about $6.7 billion of funded debt and preferred stock. The lower rating is based on the continuing effect of rising commodity costs and the challenging competitive environment on the company's profitability measures. Kimberly-Clark's operating margins have substantially weakened in recent years to about 19% from the mid-20% area, as a result
