On April 1, 2008, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services placed its ratings on Quiksilver Inc., including its 'BB-' corporate credit rating, on CreditWatch with negative implications. The Huntington Beach, Calif.-based apparel company had about $996 million in debt outstanding at Jan. 31, 2008. The CreditWatch placement reflects the much weaker-than-expected credit metrics reported for the first quarter ended January 2008. While we expected that results would be lower due to the company's current difficulties with its Rossignol hard-good equipment business (lower reorders, heavy markdowns, and significant reduction in orders for the winter 2007/2008 ski season), financial measures for the last 12 months came in well below our expectations, despite the $100 million debt reduction from the sale of its Cleveland
