Woodside Petroleum Ltd. Outlook Revised To Stable From Positive On Selective Buyback; Ratings Affirmed At 'BBB+'

MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) June 17, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had affirmed its 'BBB+' corporate credit and associated senior unsecured debt ratings on Australian exploration and production company Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (Woodside). At the same time, we revised our outlook to stable, from positive. The rating affirmation follows Woodside's announcement that it has signed a binding agreement with Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd. to purchase 78.3 million Woodside shares from Shell via a selective buyback at a price of US$2,680 million. This represents about 9.5% of Woodside's issued capital. At the same time, Shell has entered into an agreement to sell another 78.3 million Woodside shares to institutional investors. As a consequence, Shell's shareholding in

...(Editor's Note: On March 26, 2015, we corrected this article to include an additional criteria titled,"2008 Corporate Criteria: Rating Each Issue," published April 15, 2008, in the Related Criteria list. The rest of the article text remains unchanged. A corrected version follows.) MELBOURNE (Standard & Poor's) June 17, 2014--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had affirmed its '###+' corporate credit and associated senior unsecured debt ratings on Australian exploration and production company Woodside Petroleum Ltd. (Woodside). At the same time, we revised our outlook to stable, from positive. The rating affirmation follows Woodside's announcement that it has signed a binding agreement with Shell Energy Holdings Australia Ltd. to purchase 78.3 million Woodside shares from Shell via a selective buyback at a price of US$2,680 million. This represents about 9.5% of Woodside's issued capital. At the same time, Shell has entered into an agreement to sell another 78.3 million...

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