DBRS Releases Report on Safeway Inc. and Canada Safeway Limited

DBRS has today released a report on Safeway Inc. and Canada Safeway Limited (collectively, Safeway or the Company) that supports the recent confirmation of Safeway’s long-term debt ratings at BBB and the downgrade of the Company’s Commercial Paper ratings to R-2 (middle) from R-2 (high); the trends are Stable.

The rating actions followed Safeway’s announcement that it has increased the authorized level of its stock repurchase program, which had $0.9 billion remaining (at the end of Q3 2011), by $1.0 billion; is issuing $800 million of senior unsecured notes; and plans to incur $700 million of bank term debt in the first half of 2012.

Today’s report and the December 1, 2011, press release are available at www.dbrs.com or by contacting us at info@dbrs.com.