Moody's rates Iberdrola Baa1, ups subsidiaries

Moody's Investors Service said it assigned a Baa1 issuer rating to Iberdrola USA (IUSA), a subsidiary of Iberdrola SA (ISA; Baa1 negative).

The agency also upgraded the ratings of IUSA's three regulated subsidiaries: New York State Electric & Gas Corp. (including its senior unsecured rating to A3 from Baa1), Central Maine Power (including its senior unsecured rating to A3 from Baa1) and Rochester Gas & Electric (RGE; including its issuer rating to Baa1 from Baa2).

The outlooks are negative.

"The Baa1 rating for IUSA reflects the credit strength of its parent company, ISA, in addition to IUSA's conservatively levered capital structure and a 50/50 regulated/unregulated business mix that should produce robust cash flow over the intermediate-term," Moody's assistant vice president Ryan Wobbrock said in a news release.

"The negative outlook takes into account the negative outlook at ISA, a centralized liquidity management philosophy across the ISA family, and a lack of meaningful lending restrictions between IUSA and most of its affiliates."

"The upgrades for NYSEG, CMP and RGE reflect regulatory provisions in New York and Maine that are consistent with our view of a generally improving regulatory environment for US electric and gas utilities and a strong suite of ring-fence type provisions that help insulate these utilities from contagion affects stemming from its parent or affiliates," Wobbrock added in the release.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.