The 'A' corporate credit rating on Stanley Black&Decker Inc. reflects its strong brands, geographic and product diversity, and leading positions in security products and industrial, hand, and power tools, that results in what Standard&Poor's Ratings Services considers its "strong" business risk profile. This, combined with a solid track record of cash flow generation and significant debt reduction, offsets what we would consider its "intermediate" financial risk profile following the assumption of $1.5 billion debt after the acquisition of Black&Decker Corp. earlier this year. Our ratings incorporate the expectation that Stanley will use internally generated cash flow--derived from increased operating efficiencies, working capital improvement, and significant cost synergies--to aggressively reduce debt during the next several
