The recent ratings affirmation for Cleco Corp. and subsidiary Cleco Power LLC follows the announcement that Cleco intends to issue 1.75 million shares of common stock. Cleco, based in Pineville, La., has about $1 billion in debt. Standard&Poor's views the equity issuance as a signal of continued focus on core utility operations and debt reduction. Still, credit measures remain weak for the current rating and the company remains challenged as it struggles to resolve unregulated power issues. Efforts to sell a merchant plant have faced persistent delays, and a dispute with a tolling counterparty threatens to reduce cash flow from merchant operations. Importantly, lack of improvement in credit statistics or continued problems with the unregulated business in the
