Cleco Corp. Ratings And Subsidiary Ratings Affirmed On NRG South Central Generating Acquisition; Outlooks Remain Stable

Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC (Cleco Corp.) completed its acquisition of NRG South Central Generating LLC, a mostly contracted merchant generation portfolio, for about $1 billion, consistent with our expectations at the announcement of the transaction in February 2018. We expect that Cleco Corp. will finance the acquisition in a balanced manner and that its EBITDA contribution from its lower-risk regulated utilities business will consistently reflect about 75% of consolidated EBITDA. S&P Global Ratings affirmed its 'BBB-' issuer credit rating on Cleco Corp. and 'BBB+' issuer credit rating on subsidiary Cleco Power LLC (Cleco Power). The rating outlooks remain stable. The stable outlook reflects Cleco Corp.'s mostly regulated, lower-risk utility operations and the strength of the company's mostly contracted merchant assets.

...+ Cleco Corporate Holdings LLC (Cleco Corp.) completed its acquisition of NRG South Central Generating LLC, a mostly contracted merchant generation portfolio, for about $1 billion, consistent with our expectations at the announcement of the transaction in February 2018. + We expect that Cleco Corp. will finance the acquisition in a balanced manner and that its EBITDA contribution from its lower-risk regulated utilities business will consistently reflect about 75% of consolidated EBITDA. + S&P Global Ratings affirmed its '###-' issuer credit rating on Cleco Corp. and '###+' issuer credit rating on subsidiary Cleco Power LLC (Cleco Power). The rating outlooks remain stable. + The stable outlook reflects Cleco Corp.'s mostly regulated, lower-risk utility operations and the strength of the company's mostly contracted merchant assets. The stable outlook also reflects our expectation that the company's financial measures will consistently reflect FFO to debt of about 13.5%, the lower end of the...

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