Moody’s revises Williams view to stable

Moody's Investors Service said it changed Williams Partners, LP's (WPZ) and its wholly owned pipeline subsidiaries', Northwest Pipeline GP and Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co. LLC (Transco), outlooks to stable from negative.

The agency also changed Williams Cos.’s outlook to stable from negative.

Additionally, Moody's affirmed the Baa3 senior unsecured rating and the Prime-3 short term rating of Williams Partners and the Baa2 senior unsecured ratings of Northwest and Transco. The Ba2 corporate family rating and the SGL-3 speculative grade liquidity rating of Williams were also affirmed.

"The reduction in WPZ's distribution burden and accompanying restoration of healthy distribution coverage, combined with the large equity offering supports a stable rating outlook across the Williams' family of companies," Moody's senior vice president Pete Speer said in a news release.

"These strong actions taken by Williams should enable WPZ to sustain credit metrics consistent with its Baa3 ratings, even if the partnership's organic earnings growth encounters some headwinds from customer volumes."

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