Fitch Rates Beckman Coulter's Senior Notes 'BBB'

CHICAGO--(Business Wire)--
Fitch Ratings has assigned a 'BBB' rating to Beckman Coulter, Inc.'s (Beckman
Coulter) proposed public issuance of $500 million senior unsecured notes,
comprising of $250 million of six-year notes and $250 million of 10-year notes.
Proceeds from the senior unsecured debt are expected to be used for general
corporate purposes and to finance the purchase of the diagnostic assets of the
Japanese conglomerate, Olympus.

Fitch rates Beckman Coulter as follows:

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB';

--Bank loan 'BBB';

--Senior unsecured debt 'BBB'.

Beckman Coulter's leverage has eased considerably since 2006 and was 1.33 times
(x) for the latest 12 month (LTM) period at the end of the first quarter of 2009
(1Q'09). Fitch anticipates that incremental debt used to fund the $780 million
Olympus asset acquisition will push leverage higher, but to a level consistent
with the current rating category. After fully annualizing the new assets,
leverage is expected to fall below 2.0x in 2010. The company will not face a
significant debt maturity until November 2011 when $235 million of 6.875%
unsecured notes will be due.

Beckman Coulter's rating is supported by certainty of cash flows derived from
recurring revenues, specifically consumables, reagents and services, which
represented 83% of total revenues in the 1Q'09 and are typically linked to
five-year contracts. After-market sales growth moderated to 4.7% (constant
currency) from low-double digit historical increases, paralleling management's
expectations of full-year growth of 6%-7% in 2009 at constant exchange rates.

Beckman Coulter improved free cash flow to $178.4 million for the LTM period
ending March 31, 2009 from $84.9 million in 2007, driven by solid operating
performance. Fitch expects free cash flow to remain steady in the intermediate
term, despite annual dividend increases, higher pension contributions and
capital spending expansion. Additional liquidity is derived from full
availability under a $350 million three-year revolving credit facility that
expires in January 2012 and a $125 million receivables securitization program,
on a one-year revolving basis, which comes due in October 2009.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on
the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and
methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of
conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance
and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of
Conduct' section of this site.

Fitch Ratings, Chicago
Michael Zbinovec, 312-368-3164
Lauren Coste, 312-606-2320
or
Media Relations:
Cindy Stoller, 212-908-0526, New York
Email: cindy.stoller@fitchratings.com

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