DBRS Assigns Rating of A (high) to Costco’s New Debt Issuance, Stable Trend

DBRS Limited (DBRS) has today assigned a rating of A (high) with a Stable trend to Costco Wholesale Corporation’s (Costco’s or the Company) multi-tranche debt issue totalling $1.0 billion announced on February 5, 2015.

The issuance is made up of the following tranches (collectively, the Notes):

(1) $500 million, 1.75% senior unsecured notes due 2020, and

(2) $500 million, 2.25% senior unsecured notes due 2022.

The Notes will be unsecured obligations ranking pari passu with Costco’s other senior unsecured indebtedness. The Company intends to use net proceeds from the Notes to partially fund a special cash dividend on its common stock of approximately $2.2 billion (announced on January 30, 2015).

Notes:
All figures are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise noted.

This rating is endorsed by DBRS Ratings Limited for use in the European Union.

The applicable methodology is Rating Companies in the Merchandising Industry, which can be found on our website under Methodologies.

For more information on this credit or on this industry, visit www.dbrs.com or contact us at info@dbrs.com.