On March 15 2002, Standard&Poor's assigned its rating to Minnesota based property/casualty insurer St. Paul Cos. Inc.'s $500 million senior notes issuance, due to mature in March 2007. This represents a draw down of shelf registration statement No. 333-44122, which became effective Aug. 30, 2000, and was amended on Dec. 19, 2001, with an aggregate amount of $1.001 billion. These securities will rank equally with St. Paul's existing senior note obligations. The outlook is negative because of the risk of significant restructuring and the need to improve capital adequacy of the St. Paul Cos. Inc. The outlook reflects the challenges facing the company in 2002 in exiting its health care business and implementing the restructuring of its worldwide
