We are revising our liquidity assessment on Pineville, La.-based utility company Cleco Corp. to strong from adequate. We are affirming our 'BBB-' corporate credit rating on Cleco, our 'BBB-' issue-level rating on its senior unsecured debt and on the remaining balance of Cleco's senior unsecured term-loan due in 2019. Our revised liquidity assessment follows recent refinancing of Cleco's bank loan facility, replacing about $1 billion in short-tenor bank loans with longer-term maturity debt. The stable outlook for Cleco reflects our expectation that it will continue to focus on its lower-risk regulated utility operations and on managing regulatory risk amid the change in ownership, including our expectations for stable financial measures that continue to support the company's stand-alone credit profile. On
