NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) May 30, 2012--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today it assigned its preliminary 'BBB-' senior unsecured debt rating and preliminary 'BB+' subordinated debt rating to Benton Harbor, Mich.-based Whirlpool Corp.'s Rule 415 universal shelf registration. In addition, we assigned a 'BBB-' rating to the company's proposed issuance of $300 million senior unsecured notes due 2022. We expect net proceeds from the debt issue to refinance existing indebtedness. As a result, we estimate leverage, as measured by the ratio of total adjusted debt to EBITDA, to remain unchanged following the offering. For the 12 months ended March 31, 2012, we estimate adjusted leverage was about 2.8x. The ratings on Whirlpool Corp. reflect our opinion that the
