S&P revises AltaGas view to stable

S&P said it revised the outlooks to stable from negative for AltaGas Ltd. and its subsidiary WGL Holdings Inc.

“The outlook on AltaGas and subsidiaries to stable followed the company’s execution of its de-leveraging plans. The plans included noncore asset sales of about C$2.2 billion in 2019, which brought total asset sales to about C$6 billion over the past 18 months, and the reduction of dividends in 2018. The company has used the proceeds for debt reduction and capital expenditures, improving the consolidated financial measures at AltaGas. We expect the company is on track to reduce leverage by about C$3 billion in 2019 and maintain FFO to debt at about 11%-12% through our outlook period,” said S&P in a press release.

S&P affirmed the BBB-ratings for AltaGas and WGL and affirmed AltaGas’ BBB- senior unsecured debt rating, BB preferred stock rating, and P-3 preferred stock Canada national scale rating; and WGLH’s BB+ senior unsecured debt rating.

The agency also raised its long-term issuer credit ratings on subsidiary Washington Gas Light Co. to A- from BBB+ and removed the ratings from under criteria observation. The decision to remove the ratings came after S&P determined there were adequate protections separating Washington Gas Light from AltaGas. As a result, S&P upgraded the issue-level ratings on Washington Gas Light’s senior unsecured debt to A- from BBB+. The outlook for the subsidiary is stable.

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