Moody’s revises Williams to positive

Moody's Investors Service said it changed the outlooks on Williams Partners, LP's (WPZ) and its wholly owned pipeline subsidiaries, Northwest Pipeline GP and Transcontinental Gas Pipeline Co., to positive from stable.

The agency also changed Williams Cos.’ outlook to positive from stable.

Additionally, Moody's affirmed the Baa3 senior unsecured rating and the Prime-3 short-term rating of Williams Partners and the Baa2 senior unsecured ratings of Northwest and Transco.

Williams' Ba2 corporate family rating was also affirmed. Its Speculative grade liquidity rating was upgraded to SGL-2 from SGL-3.

"The change in outlook to positive reflects the culmination of several steps completed by management this year to strengthen WPZ's credit profile, lower its business risk and improve its operational execution and earnings predictability," Moody's senior vice president Pete Speer said in a news release.

"If the partnership can continue its strong execution on growth projects while maintaining its lower financial leverage and good distribution coverage, the ratings could be upgraded in 2018."

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