Richmond, Va.-based energy holding company Dominion Resources Inc. (DRI) has created a new subsidiary to hold its regulated natural gas companies, Dominion Gas Holdings LLC (DGH). Standard&Poor's Ratings Services expects an issuance in excess of $1 billion of unsecured senior notes by DGH, which will use proceeds to reduce DRI's debt. We are assigning DGH our 'A-' corporate credit rating. We are also assigning the expected senior unsecured notes our 'A-' issue-level rating. We are downgrading the unsecured debt at DRI to 'BBB+' from 'A-' to reflect the greater structural subordination at the parent due to the new priority debt at DGH. We are also affirming the corporate credit rating on DRI. The stable rating outlook reflects our
