Moody’s upgrades Access Midstream to Baa2

Moody's Investors Service said it upgraded the senior unsecured note ratings of Access Midstream Partners, LP to Baa2 from Ba2.

The agency also affirmed Williams Cos., Inc.'s Baa3 senior unsecured ratings, Williams Partners, LP's Baa2 senior unsecured ratings and the Baa1 ratings of Williams Partners’ wholly owned pipeline subsidiaries, Northwest Pipeline and Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co.

The outlooks are stable.

These actions are in response to the merger of Access Midstream and Williams Partners, which is expected to be completed on Feb. 2.

This concludes the ratings review of Access Midstream that was initiated on June 16, 2014.

Access Midstream’s Ba1 corporate family rating, SGL-2 speculative grade liquidity rating and other ratings were withdrawn.

"The combination of Williams Partners and Access Midstream improves the partnership's business risk profile, adding fee based revenues with volume risk mitigated by long-term contracts," Moody’s senior vice president Pete Speer said in a news release.

"However, Williams Partners and Williams Cos.’ financial leverage is presently high and the ratings rely on the partnership successfully bringing its growth projects online and achieving the expected improvement in financial metrics over the course of 2015 and 2016."

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