S&P revises CP Ships watch implications to ?negative?

S&P revises CP Ships watch implications to ænegativeÆ    Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said Friday it revised the implications of its CreditWatch placement on CP Ships Ltd. to 'negative' from 'developing.'
   The ratings were originally placed on CreditWatch with developing implications on Aug. 22, when the management board of CP Ships recommended it accept a takeover offer from TUI AG, a German tourism and container-shipping group.
   The revision comes after Standard & Poor's assigned its 'BB+' corporate credit ratings to TUI.
   'TUI AG recently acquired 89 percent of the shares of CP Ships and is expected to complete the takeover of the remaining shares by late 2005. When the takeover has been completed, we expect to equalize the corporate credit rating on CP Ships with those on TUI,' Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said in a statement.
   CP Ships is the 18th-largest container shipping company in the world, with annual revenues of about $3.6 billion in 2004.