Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' ratings on Ecolab Inc. reflect the company's "excellent" business risk profile as a global leader in a service-oriented specialty chemical market segment for commercial and industrial cleaning, sanitizing, food safety, and infection prevention control; and equipment and process-improvement services for raw water and wastewater treatment. The ratings also reflect the company's "significant" financial risk profile, which offsets to some extent its business risk profile strengths. The company's recent acquisition of Nalco Holding, which closed at the end of 2011, has strengthened several aspects of the business risk profile. In our view, the acquisition adds a high-EBITDA-margin business with good growth prospects and favorable long-term demand fundamentals. It will significantly expand the firm's market opportunities while
