Neiman Marcus 2003 Annual Report Download - page 264

"Moodys" means Moodys Investors Service.
"S&P" means Standard & Poor's, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
"Rating Agencies" means Moodys and S&P.
"Ratings" means the credit ratings assigned to the senior unsecured long-term debt securities of the Borrower without third-
party credit enhancement by the Rating Agencies. If there is no rating assigned to debt securities, the corporate credit rating will be
used. Any rating assigned to any other debt security of the Borrower shall be disregarded. The rating in effect at any date is that in
effect at the close of business on such date. In the case of split ratings from S&P or Moodys, the rating to be used to determine which
Pricing Level applies is the higher of the two (e.g., BBB+/Baa2 results in Level II Status); provided that if the split is more than one
full rating category, the rating category immediately above the lower of the two rating categories will be used (e.g., BBB+/Baa3
results in Level III Status, as does A-/Baa3).
"Status" refers to the determination of which of Level I Status, Level II Status, Level III Status, Level IV Status, Level V
Status or Level VI Status exists at any date.
"Utilization" means, at any date, the percentage equivalent of a fraction, (i) the numerator of which is the sum of the aggregate
outstanding principal amount of the Loans and the aggregate Letter of Credit Liabilities at such date (after giving effect to any
borrowing, issuance or payment on such date) and the denominator of which is the aggregate amount of the Commitments at such date
(after giving effect to any reduction on such date). If for any reason any Lender has any Credit Exposure after termination of the
Commitments, Utilization shall be deemed to be 100%.