S&P could lower Harris

Standard & Poor's said it placed its BBB+ long-term corporate credit rating, senior unsecured debt ratings and A-2 short-term and commercial paper ratings on Harris Corp. on CreditWatch with negative implications.

The CreditWatch listing follows Harris' Feb. 6 announcement that it will acquire Exelis Inc. for about $4.8 billion in enterprise value.

"We believe the company's willingness to fund a large acquisition mostly with debt is a departure from its historically conservative financial policy that supported the current ratings," S&P credit analyst Andrew Chang said in a news release.

"The significant increase in debt obligations related to financing the Exelis acquisition results in a meaningful deterioration in credit metrics."

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