American Electric Power Co. Inc. (AEP) completed the sale of 5,200 megawatts (MW) of merchant generation capacity raising about $1.6 billion in after-tax proceeds. Divesting the high-risk assets improves AEP's credit profile that will now be dominated by regulated utilities. We are raising our issuer credit ratings on AEP and all its utility subsidiaries--Appalachian Power Co., Indiana Michigan Power Co., Kentucky Power Co., Ohio Power Co., Public Service Co. of Oklahoma, Southwestern Electric Power Co., AEP Texas Inc., AEP Transmission Co. LLC, and Wheeling Power Co.--to 'A-' from 'BBB+'. At the same time, we are removing the ratings from CreditWatch, where we placed them with positive implications on Sept. 16, 2016. The outlook is stable. The stable outlook on AEP
