LONDON (Standard&Poor's) May 13, 2009--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it lowered its long-term corporate credit rating on Austrian utility KELAG to 'A' from 'A+'. At the same time, Standard&Poor's removed the ratings from CreditWatch, where they were placed with negative implications on Jan. 28, 2009. The outlook is stable. "The downgrade reflects Standard&Poor's expectation of a weakening in KELAG's credit protection measures because of lower wholesale power prices resulting from the economic downturn, which we expect to negatively affect earnings in 2009 and 2010, and modestly increasing debt levels arising from an expanded capital expenditure program," said Standard&Poor's credit analyst Mark Davidson. Although KELAG reported record profits for the
