MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) April 30, 2003-- Standard&Poor's Ratings Services today withdrew its long-term 'B' rating on the debt issuances of Aquila Inc's (B/Negative/—) three guaranteed Asia Pacific financing vehicles— UtiliCorp Asia Pacific Pty Ltd., UtiliCorp Australia (Gas) Finance Pty Ltd., and UtiliCorp Australia Finance Pty Ltd.—following the repayment of all the debt in the three companies. Also, Aquila has terminated its fully guaranteed A$500 million medium-term notes/commercial paper program, established in April 1999, to fund the aforementioned wholly-owned subsidiaries. Aquila unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed all the debt issued by these three companies, and their debt rating reflected the long-term rating of Aquila. Standard&Poor's is a leader in providing widely recognized financial data, analytical research and
