Merger Activity & Credit Rating

Economist.com:

America's largest producer of household goods, Procter & Gamble, agreed to buy Gillette, a maker of razors and batteries, for $57 billion. The merger, one of the largest ever, will create the world's biggest consumer-goods business, and should provide more clout for the supplier in price negotiations with mega-retailers such as Wal-Mart.

See article: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3623265&fsrc=nwl

SBC Communications announced a merger with AT&T for around $16 billion. The deal needs to be approved by almost 30 state regulators, and is not expected to be completed until 2006. Speculation mounted that America's largest telecoms company, Verizon, would try to shore up its position by acquiring MCI or Sprint.

See article: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3620785&fsrc=nwl

Citigroup said it was selling its Travelers life-insurance business to MetLife in a deal worth $11.5 billion. The deal completes the reversal of a grand banking-and-insurance merger in 1998.

Shareholders at Adolph Coors, a Colorado-based brewing company, approved a $3.4 billion merger with Molson, a Canadian brewing company. Molson Coors will become the world's fifth-largest brewer.

Russia's economy received a fillip as Standard & Poor's raised the country's long-term foreign-currency sovereign credit-rating from “junk” to investment grade. Russia became a net creditor at the end of 2004 (helped in part by high oil prices). S&P'S decision follows on the heels of similar upgrades by both Fitch and Moody's