NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) June 1, 2004--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today noted that Aquila Inc.'s (B-/Negative/--) announcement that it has completed the sale of its Canadian utility business to Fortis Inc., a Canadian energy company, for about $1.08 billion, including the assumption of $113 million of debt by Fortis, will not affect the company's ratings or outlook. The asset sale demonstrates management's continued commitment to its restructuring plan and efforts to address the company's strained liquidity position and leveraged financial profile. The sale proceeds should be used to retire $400 million of Aquila's senior notes due July 2004 and October 2004. The event does not constitute a basis for rating actions, however, because the current ratings reflected the
