NEW YORK (Reuters) - Tyco International Ltd. shares rose as some investors viewed the conglomerate's restatement of 5- years of financial results as boosting management credibility.

Credit rating agency Standard & Poor's affirmed Tyco's “BBB-minus” rating, one notch above “junk” status, and “stable” outlook on $25.4 billion of debt, though it warned the restatement might provide fuel to angry shareholders suing the company for misleading them in the past.

Tyco, the Bermuda-based maker of such products as burglar alarms, coat hangers and sprinklers, is trying to clean up its balance sheet under Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Edward Breen, whom Tyco hired from Motorola Inc. last July. Breen's indicted predecessor, Dennis Kozlowski, has pleaded innocent to charges that he ran a criminal enterprise that stole more than $600 million from the company.

“There was a major mess left by Kozlowski, and new management is trying to put the company on the right path,” said Jean-Marie Eveillard, who runs the $3 billion First Eagle Global Fund, which owns 2.48 million Tyco shares. “The fact that they seem to have come to the end of discovering new problems is good news.”

Tyco shares closed up 35 cents at $19.92 on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares have risen 24 percent since Kozlowski stepped down in June 2002, and more than 140 percent since Breen was named chairman and CEO the following month.

The restatement mainly affects $696.1 million of pretax charges, or $527.7 million after taxes, taken in the quarters ending December 2001 and March 2003. The change will boost results for fiscal 2002 and 2003, and reduce them for fiscal 1998 through 2001, Tyco said.

It said the restatement will require no new charges, and should not hurt results this year or in the future. Since October, Tyco has disclosed $2 billion of accounting-related problems.

Tyco also said it is in talks with the US Securities and Exchange Commission over whether to push back other charges it took in the quarter ended March 31, including $630 million related to its ADT security alarm unit.

Investors this month sued Tyco, claiming it inflated pretax profit by more than $6 billion between December 1999 and June 2002.

“The restatements may strengthen the plaintiff's position with regard to shareholder lawsuits,” said Joel Levington, an S&P analyst. “Potential awards, if any, ... are uncertain.”