U.S. diversified energy company Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI) announced a strategic joint venture whereby KMI intends to sell a 50% equity interest in Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG) to electric and gas utility Southern Co. for $1.47 billion. We are placing our 'BBB-' corporate credit and senior unsecured debt ratings on SNG on CreditWatch with positive implications. Our 'BBB-' corporate credit rating and stable outlook on Kinder Morgan Inc. is unaffected by this action. We intend to deconsolidate SNG's debt and EBITDA from KMI's financial statements and only include pro forma distributions received from SNG in KMI's EBITDA. We expect to resolve the CreditWatch listing when the transaction closes in the late third or early fourth quarter of 2016, at
