MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) Dec. 15, 2015--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today said that the New Zealand Commerce Commission's (NZCC) announcement of the Final Pricing Principles (FPP) that Chorus Ltd. can apply for its copper network services would have no impact on the 'BBB' ratings or stable outlook on Chorus. We consider the announcement to be supportive of the ratings on the group and the new pricing is likely to lift the company's annualized EBITDA by about NZ$120 million from December 2015, compared with the current benchmark pricing. We note that no backdating of the FPP decision will be allowed. Following this regulatory decision, we consider that Chorus remains comfortably positioned at the current rating, with debt to EBITDA expected
