WOOLWORTH RATING IS DOWNGRADED
NEW YORK — Standard & Poor’s on Tuesday revised its outlook on Woolworth Corp.’s debt rating to negative from stable, but affirmed its rating on the company’s unsecured debt and commercial paper. About $935 million in rated debt is affected. The outlook is negative.
Separately, Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. downgraded Woolworth’s senior unsecured debt rating and commercial paper, while affirming the preferred stock rating. About $530 million in securities are affected.
Both agencies’ changes are based on weaker-than-expected operating results for 1995, which will likely be below last year’s profit.
Woolworth needs to improve its other operations to raise performance to low investment-grade rating levels, S&P noted.