Standard&Poor's Ratings Services' ratings on Cleco Corp. reflect the company's "excellent" business risk profile and "aggressive" financial risk profile under our criteria. Cleco owns Cleco Power LLC (BBB/Positive/--), a regulated electric utility, and Cleco Midstream Resources LLC (unrated), a merchant generation subsidiary. Cleco Power is Cleco's largest subsidiary, serving about 281,000 customers mainly in western and central Louisiana, a service territory that is largely residential and commercial and demonstrating only modest customer growth. The company has been able to achieve constructive regulatory outcomes that generally support the consolidated credit profile. Cleco Power currently operates under a four-year settlement agreement, entered into in October 2009, that increased base rates by $173.3 million effective February 2010, to account for the
