The ratings on Schneider Electric S.A. (Schneider), a major world player in electrical distribution as well as industrial control and automation, reflect the group's strong market positions and extensive end-market and geographic diversity. These strengths are tempered, however, by the group's decreasingly conservative financial profile. Over the first six months of 2001, Schneider posted sales of €4.9 billion, a 3.9% like-for-like increase compared with first-half 2000. The EBITDA margin was 12.2%, compared with 13.2% a year earlier. Buoyant developments in the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America (which accounted for a combined 18% of sales in 2000) and sustained favorable conditions in Southern and Eastern Europe (33% of sales were derived from Europe outside France in 2000) helped mitigate
