S&P lowers Walgreen

Standard & Poor's said it lowered Walgreen Co.'s corporate credit rating to BBB from A, along with the short-term rating to A-2 from A-1.

All of the ratings were removed from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications in June.

The actions follow news that Walgreen has completed the purchase of 45% of Alliance Boots GmhB, S&P said.

The ratings reflect the company's strong business risk profile and significant financial risk profile, given the acquisition of Alliance Boots, S&P said.

The strong business risk profile reflects the combination of Walgreen and Boots to create a large international drug retail chain with great operating scale and increased diversity, the agency said.

There is limited integration risk, given the two-step approach to ultimately acquire all of Boots, which allows for minimal disruption of the existing business while allowing time to design the eventual structure of the combined company, S&P said.

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