S&P rates Pfizer notes AAA

Standard & Poor's said that it assigned its AAA rating to Pfizer Inc.'s senior unsecured notes issued under a Rule 415 shelf registration.

The issuance will consist of benchmark offerings of three-, six-, 10- and 30-year maturities, the agency said, adding that these notes, and all other long-term ratings on Pfizer, remain on Creditwatch where they were placed with negative implications on Jan. 26.

The proceeds will be used to fund the pending $68 billion acquisition of Wyeth (A+/watch positive/A-1), of which about $22.5 billion will be funded with borrowings, S&P said.

"Financially, the additional borrowings needed to fund the acquisition weaken credit measures from the essentially unleveraged position of the past few years; pro forma for this acquisition, the agency said it believes that funds from operations to debt and debt to EBITDA will average 111% and 0.6x over the next three years," said S&P credit analyst David Lugg.

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