(The following statement was released by the ratings agency)
NEW YORK, Jan 28 - Goodrich Corp. (BBB/Stable/--) announced today that it has reached an agreement to sell its Avionics Systems unit to L-3 Communications Corp. (BB+/Stable/--) for $188 million. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said that its ratings and outlooks on Goodrich and L-3 are not affected by this announcement. Goodrich will use the approximately $134 million after-tax proceeds to repay a portion of the $1.5 billion bridge facility used to purchase TRW's Aeronautical Systems business in 2002. By the end of 2002, the company had repaid $1.3 billion of the facility using the proceeds from a secondary stock offering, debt issuance, and asset sales, as well as cash from operations. Avionic Systems had approximately $100 million in sales in 2002 and produces avionics for general aviation, business jet, and military aircraft.