Moody's May Lower Ratings On Northeast's Debt Issues
May 19, 2011
BERLIN, Conn. -- Moody's Investors Service Inc. said it placed under review for possible downgrade debt held by Northeast Utilities. About $2 billion of securities is affected. Moody's earlier this year downgraded Northeast's debt ratings due to problems at the company's nuclear plants. Northeast's senior unsecured debt is now rated Ba1. Moody's attributed the current possible downgrade to continued delays in Northeast's plans to restart the Connecticut Yankee reactor as well as on continuing outages at the company's three Millstone reactors in Waterford, Conn.. All four reactors remain closed pending safety reviews, and the company recently said it may retire Connecticut Yankee 10 years ahead of schedule. Northeast said Thursday that engineers at the plant found leakage problems for the second straight day, and the company said it was suspending refueling operations at the plant. Smith Barney Inc. analyst Williemae Monzon cut his rating on Northeast's stock to ``neutral'' from ``outperform,'' citing uncertainty over when the plant might return to service. Northeast Utilities said if Moody's does lower credit ratings, it could make less attractive a bond issue being considered by its Western Massachusetts Electric Co. unit for later this year. Northeast Utilities shares closed unchanged at $12.625 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
