Standard & Poor's upgraded New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority, raising its issuer credit rating and transportation revenue bond ratings to AA-minus from A-plus.
Transportation revenue bonds are the primary credit for the MTA, which has $32 billion of debt. The authority plans a $500 million sale of TRBs this week.
Proceeds of the MTA's $500 million Series 2014C transportation revenue bonds will finance transit and commuter projects.
Standard & Poor's also raised its stand-alone credit profile on the authority to aa-minus from a-plus, and affirmed its AAA/A-1 rating on the authority's Series 2005D transportation revenue bonds, reflecting the application of its joint criteria with low correlation. The outlook, where applicable, is stable.
"The raised rating reflects our view of the MTA's enterprise risk score that we view as extremely strong, and the authority's financial risk score that we view as strong," S&P credit analyst Joseph Pezzimenti said in a June 17 statement.
