S&P upgrades Comcast

Standard & Poor's said it raised Comcast Corp.'s corporate credit rating to A- from BBB+.

The short-term and commercial paper ratings remain at A-2.

The outlook is positive.

The upgrade follows news that Comcast has an agreement to buy General Electric Co.'s 49% stake in NBCUniversal LLC, with an accompanying financing plan that includes only $6.725 billion of new debt and debt-like instruments, coupled with its stated revision in its targeted leverage parameter to a range of 1.5x to 2x from the former 2x to 2.5x range, S&P said.

The ratings are constrained by an expectation that an all debt-funded buyout of NBCUniversal will result in Comcast's leverage rising to the high-2x range on a sustained basis, the agency said.

The positive outlook reflects the likelihood of an upgrade if the company is able to achieve adjusted leverage of no higher than 2x in the next two years, S&P said, adding that it does believe the company has the ability to achieve such improvement.

The ratings reflect the company's favorable business position, including scale economies as the largest cable operator in the United States and the high-bandwidth capacity of its network to meet competition from satellite and telephone companies, the agency said.

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