Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and its subsidiary
Taiwan Ratings Corp. are pleased to present the fourth annual survey of Taiwan's top 50 corporates (based on revenue). This publication, which offers the most comprehensive views on corporate credit trends in Taiwan,
outlines our thinking on factors likely to shape corporate credit quality. The lead article, "Global Economy Boosts Credit Quality Of Taiwan's Top 50 Corporates, But Can They Stay On Track?", has uncovered a number of important trends. The credit quality of first-tier companies in major industrial sectors shows continued improvement. We expect top-tier corporates to maintain stable profiles, or see slight improvement in their credit profiles through the rest
of 2007, given little evidence of an impending reversal of global economic conditions. Despite a rosy near-term outlook, we believe the next steps that companies take in their business and financial strategies will be crucial. Aggressive investment in noncore businesses, subsidiaries and affiliates, or excessive returns to shareholders, could impede the longer-term growth of a
company's core business, and lead to near- or medium-term
deterioration in credit quality. The commentary "Taiwan's
Top Industrials Face Cash Management Conundrum" provides specific examples of how different business and financial strategies are affecting the credit outlook of leading companies in four major industrial sectors. A new, important feature in this year's publication is that we have included credit commentaries for all 50 companies in the Top 50 list, which are both rated and
unrated by Taiwan Ratings. The article on each company features our assigned business risk and financial risk profile scores, a summary of key credit strengths and weaknesses, and statistics covering key financial figures and credit ratios. The commentaries represent the most up-to-date snapshot of credit profiles of the top corporates in Taiwan that is available in this market.
