TEXT-S&P rates Dun & Bradstreet shelf preliminary 'A-'

June 26 - Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today assigned its preliminary
'A-' rating to The Dun & Bradstreet Corp.'s (D&B) unlimited new shelf filing of
senior debt securities. D&B plans to use net proceeds from the sale of the
senior debt securities for general corporate purposes, which we expect will
include refinancing its $400 million senior notes due April 2013. The company
had $842.8 million of debt outstanding as of March 31, 2012.

The long-term corporate credit rating on D&B is 'A-'; it is on CreditWatch,
where it was placed with negative implications on May 23, 2012, reflecting
lower revenue expectations in 2012 and potential violations of the Foreign
Corrupt Practice Act (FCPA) and local consumer data privacy laws in connection
with data collection practices in China. The short-term commercial paper
rating remains 'A-2', and was not placed on CreditWatch.

The CreditWatch action reflects D&B's continued aggressive share repurchase
plans, despite weaker operating performance expectations, high debt balances,
and the possibility of penalties related to potential legal infractions in
China. We therefore expect D&B's leverage to remain above our 2.5x target for
the rating over at least the next several quarters. D&B did not repurchase any
shares during the first quarter, but we expect it will spend between $150
million and $175 million this year, or approximately 90% to 100% of
discretionary cash flow, based on our estimates.

RELATED CRITERIA AND RESEARCH
-- Methodology: Short-Term/Long-Term Ratings Linkage Criteria For
Corporate And Sovereign Issuers, May 15, 2012
-- Methodology And Assumptions: Liquidity Descriptors For Global
Corporate Issuers, Sept. 28, 2011
-- Use Of CreditWatch And Outlooks, Sept. 14, 2009
-- Business Risk/Financial Risk Matrix Expanded, May 27, 2009
-- 2008 Corporate Criteria: Analytical Methodology, April 15, 2008

RATINGS LIST
The Dun & Bradstreet Corp.

Corporate credit rating A-/Watch Neg/A-2

Rating Assigned
Unlimited senior shelf debt A-(prelim)

Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect on
the Global Credit Portal at www.globalcreditportal.com. All ratings affected
by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at
www.standardandpoors.com. Use the Ratings search box located in the left
column.