Standard & Poor's assigned its BBB-plus long-term rating and stable outlook to Philadelphia Gas Works' revenue refunding bonds, the 20th series under the 1975 ordinance and 10th series under the 1998 ordinance.
Moody's Investors Service, meanwhile, affirmed its Baa2 rating on the 1975 and 1998 senior general ordinance bonds and affirmed its Baa3 on the 1998 subordinate general ordinance bonds.
Standard & Poor's also affirmed its long-term and underlying ratings on outstanding parity obligations as well as its BBB-plus long-term rating and stable outlook on the utility's closed senior-lien debt under its 1975 ordinance, its BBB-plus rating on outstanding subordinate-lien debt issued under PGW's 1998 ordinance, and its BBB rating on PGW's junior subordinate bonds.
The rating agency also affirmed its AAA/A-1 rating on certain series of bonds, applying its joint support criteria, after previously upgrading the ratings in August 2010.
"The ratings reflect what we consider PGW's strong management team and a credit-supportive rate structure that insulates margins from weather variability and automatically passes on gas costs to ratepayers through quarterly adjustments," wrote analyst Jeffrey Panger.
