On March 9, 2004, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services revised its outlook on French environmental services utility Veolia Environnement S.A. (VE) to stable from positive, following statements by management that suggest to Standard&Poor's that further strengthening of VE's credit measures is not a strategic priority. At the same time, Standard&Poor's affirmed its 'BBB+/A-2' ratings on the company. Following publication of financial targets during the 2003 results presentation, Standard&Poor's no longer expects VE's debt profile to materially improve. Management has suggested that it aims to maintain current credit measures, with a net debt-to-EBITDA ratio (as defined by VE) of 3.0x-3.5x (3.2x at year-end 2003). However, on the basis of Standard&Poor's definition of net
