...- Last year's acquisition of Lincoln Clean Energy and Deepwater Wind and the announced plans to divest the power distribution business in Denmark with expected signing before end-2019 marked big changes for Orsted's growth. - Despite the expected increase in debt from 2019, due to accelerated capex, the group still has financial headroom at the current rating level, as per our base case. We expect S&P Global Ratings-adjusted funds from operations (FFO) to debt to decrease progressively toward 30%-35% starting in 2020 (from 61.9% in 2018), still well above the base case of about 30% for our '###+' rating. - Orsted's capacity to lead the energy transition in offshore wind and to anticipate market trends, alongside its track record of positive transformation over the past few years, supports the group's creditworthiness. - We are affirming our '###+/A-2' ratings on Orsted. - The stable outlook reflects our assumption that the operating performance of Orsted's wind power segment will remain...
