Standard & Poor’s has announced:
- •We are revising our outlook on Emera Inc. to stable from negative.
- •The outlook revision reflects our assessment of progress on Emera’s Maritime Link project and our view that the company’s financial metrics are likely to remain in the “significant” category over the next two-to-three years.
- •We have also affirmed our ratings, including our ‘BBB+’ long-term corporate credit ratings, on Emera and subsidiary Nova Scotia Power Inc.
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“The outlook revision reflects our view of the progress Emera has made on the Maritime Link project, including regulatory approvals and issuance of debt guaranteed by the Government of Canada,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Stephen Goltz. The revision also reflects our view that Emera’s financial metrics are likely to remain in the “significant” category over the next two-to-three years.
The ratings on Emera reflect what Standard & Poor’s views as the company’s “excellent” business risk profile and significant financial risk profile.
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Emera’s significant financial risk profile reflects what we view as the stability and predictability of the company’s regulated cash flow. We project Emera’s adjusted funds from operations (AFFO)-to-debt ratio to range from 12%-13% in the next two years. We have added to the company’s consolidated debt C$250 million and C$600 million of debt for 2014 and 2015, respectively, for the Maritime Link project, reflecting the project’s importance to Emera and our view that the company would support the project if required.
The stable outlook reflects our view of Emera’s stable and predictable cash flows, which the company’s regulated operations in generally supportive regulatory environments underpin. We expect Emera’s FFO-to-debt ratio to range from 12%-13% in the next two years.
Emera has three issues of preferred shares outstanding, EMA.PR.A, EMA.PR.C (FixedResets) and EMA.PR.E (PerpetualDiscount). All are tracked by HIMIPref™; all are relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns. S&P continues to rate the issues P-2(low); they are rated Pfd-3(high), under Review-Developing by DBRS as reported on PrefBlog in August 2013.
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EMA: Trend Now Stable, Says S&P
Standard & Poor’s has announced:
Emera has three issues of preferred shares outstanding, EMA.PR.A, EMA.PR.C (FixedResets) and EMA.PR.E (PerpetualDiscount). All are tracked by HIMIPref™; all are relegated to the Scraps index on credit concerns. S&P continues to rate the issues P-2(low); they are rated Pfd-3(high), under Review-Developing by DBRS as reported on PrefBlog in August 2013.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 14th, 2014 at 9:45 pm and is filed under Issue Comments. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.