NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) July 20, 2005--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today lowered its ratings on Sabre Holdings Corp., including the corporate credit rating to 'BBB' from 'BBB+'. The ratings were removed from CreditWatch with negative implications, where they were placed on May 12, 2005, after Sabre announced an agreement to acquire on-line travel provider lastminute.com. Sabre completed the acquisition of lastminute.com for approximately $1 billion on May 20. The outlook is stable. "The acquisition will add approximately $800 million of debt to Sabre's balance sheet, which will weaken its strong financial profile somewhat," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Betsy Snyder. "However, Sabre's strong cash flow should allow it to reduce incremental debt over the next few years."
