Fitch assigns A to PG&E notes

Fitch Ratings said it assigned an A rating to Pacific Gas & Electric Co.’s (PG&E) fixed-rate senior unsecured notes and an A/F2 rating to its floating-rate notes.

Proceeds will be used to refinance maturing debt and for general corporate purposes.

The outlook is stable.

Fitch said the ratings and stable outlook consider anticipated liability associated with recent wildfires in Northern California and the 2015 Butte wildfire.

“While the extent of PG&E's liability is unknown, Fitch expects claims related to the 2017 wildfires to dwarf the $1.1 billion low-end estimate for the Butte fire and that PG&E's corporate parent, PG&E Corporation, Inc. (PCG; A/Stable), will issue equity as necessary to maintain PG&E's statutory equity ratio,” the agency said in a news release.

“Large deferred expenses related to potential recovery of fire-related liabilities or disallowance of future recoveries by the CA Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) or other factors causing FFO-adjusted leverage to increase above 4.5x would likely result in adverse credit rating actions for PG&E.”

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.