Fitch Affirms `A+' Rating of Honeywell International.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 9, 2000 Fitch has affirmed the `A+' senior debt and the `F1' commercial paper ratings of Honeywell International. The Rating Outlook is Stable. Formed through the Dec. 1999 merger of AlliedSignal Inc. and Honeywell Inc., Honeywell International possesses a broad business base, with leading market positions across a range of aerospace, chemical, automotive, industrial and home and building controls markets. The cyclical sensitivity of the combined operations For the department of the British War Office during World War II, see . In the military, combined operations are operations conducted by forces of two or more allied nations acting together for the accomplishment of a single mission. See also
See: Secondary market. aftermarket See secondary market. . Individually, each company has had a record of consistent earnings and conservative financial policies. The combined operations are expected to yield material synergies, particularly through the consolidation of the large aerospace operations. The company is implementing significant cost-reduction initiatives, including reductions in corporate-wide headcount of more than 11,000. These programs are expected to achieve $250 million in pretax cost savings in 2000 leading to a target of $750 million of annual savings in 2002. Honeywell's earnings trends are favorable and the company is expected to maintain strong quantitative credit measures, with double-digit EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) A metric used to show a company's profitability, but not its cash flow. EBITDA became popular in the 1980s to show the potential profitability of leveraged buyouts, but has become coverage of interest, strong cash flow from operations Cash flow from operations A firm's net cash inflow resulting directly from its regular operations (disregarding extraordinary items such as the sale of fixed assets or transaction costs associated with issuing securities), calculated as the sum of net income plus noncash expenses relative to total debt, and free cash flow after capital expenditures and dividends of approximately $1.3 billion. Free cash flow and debt capacity has historically been used for acquisitions or share repurchases Share Repurchase A program by which a company buys back its own shares from the marketplace, reducing the number of outstanding shares. This is usually an indication that the company's management thinks the shares are undervalued. , consistent with maintaining a strong credit profile. The company ceased share repurchases following the announcement of the merger in June 1999, which qualified as a pooling-of-interests. Fitch is an international rating agency that provides global capital market investors with the highest quality ratings and research. Dual headquartered in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of and London with a major office in Chicago, Fitch rates entities in 75 countries and has some 1,100 employees in more than 40 local offices worldwide. The agency, which is a combination of Fitch IBCA IBCA International Braille Chess Association IBCA Institute of Burial and Cremation Administration IBCA Integrated Business Communications Alliance IBCA International Barbeque Cookers Association IBCA Department of Interior Board of Contract Appeals and Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co., provides ratings for Financial Institutions, Corporations, Structured Finance, Sovereigns and Public Finance Markets worldwide. |
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