S&P and Moody's Announce Autoliv Credit Rating

S&P and Moody's Announce Autoliv Credit Rating (Stockholm, June 6, 2000) - The rating agency Standard & Poor's has today for the first time issued corporate credit ratings for Autoliv Inc. Both Standard & Poor's and Moody's have also reaffirmed the ratings of the US commercial paper (USCP) program. New ratings: Long-term Short-term Outlook Short-term Nordic scale S&P BBB+ A-2 Stable K-1 Affirmed ratings: Subsidiary level: Autoliv ASP Inc's CP program S&P A-2 Moody's P-2 The rationale behind the rating process for Autoliv is to access further financing instruments in the debt capital markets. It increases Autoliv's financial flexibility and is a foundation for a cost efficient financing of the Group in the future. The long-term rating also provides Autoliv with new possibilities to term out part of the debt. Autoliv has mandated a major Swedish bank, SEB, as lead bank for a domestic medium term note program of SEK 4 billion, (approximately USD 440 million), with ABN-AMRO, SEB, and Svenska Handelsbanken as dealers. Autoliv has also mandated another major Swedish bank, Svenska Handelsbanken as lead bank for a domestic commercial paper program of SEK 4 billion with SEB and Svenska Handelsbanken as dealers. Both programs have Euro-options and constitute a good complement source of financing to the USCP program of USD 850 million, which has been in place since 1997. Autoliv expects to launch inaugural issues in the two programs during the latter part of June. Autoliv had a net debt of USD 619 million at March 31, 2000 which corresponds to a net-debt-to-equity of 32%. The net debt has since increased by about 50% as a result of the OEA Inc. acquisition. ------------------------------------------------------------ Please visit http://www.bit.se for further information The following files are available for download: http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/06/06/20000606BIT00760/bit0001.doc http://www.bit.se/bitonline/2000/06/06/20000606BIT00760/bit0002.pdf