Kansas City Power&Light Co. Rating Raised Following Criteria Review; Outlook Stable

On July 1, 2019, we published our revised "Group Rating Methodology" and consequently placed our ratings on Kansas City Power&Light Co. (KCP&L) under criteria observation. Following our criteria review, we established that KCP&L is well insulated from parent Evergy Inc., meaning we expect any significant credit stress at Evergy would have a minimal adverse effect on KCP&L's creditworthiness. We are therefore raising our issuer credit rating on KCP&L to 'A' from 'A-'. At the same time we are raising our issue ratings on the senior secured notes to 'A+' from 'A', on the senior unsecured notes to 'A' from 'A-', on the senior unsecured revenue bonds to 'A/A-1' from 'A-/A-2', and on the commercial paper to 'A-1' from

...August 7, 2019 - On July 1, 2019, we published our revised "Group Rating Methodology" and consequently placed our ratings on Kansas City Power & Light Co. (KCP&L) under criteria observation. - Following our criteria review, we established that KCP&L is well insulated from parent Evergy Inc., meaning we expect any significant credit stress at Evergy would have a minimal adverse effect on KCP&L's creditworthiness. - We are therefore raising our issuer credit rating on KCP&L to 'A' from 'A-'. At the same time we are raising our issue ratings on the senior secured notes to 'A+' from 'A', on the senior unsecured notes to 'A' from 'A-', on the senior unsecured revenue bonds to 'A/A-1' from 'A-/A-2', and on the commercial paper to 'A-1' from 'A-2'. - The stable outlook reflects our base-case scenario that the utility will generate sufficient cash flow to maintain financial measures that support adjusted FFO to debt of 20%-22% from 2019 through 2021, which is at the upper end of our significant...

Ratings Action