Birmingham, Ala.-based Southern Natural Gas Co. (SNG) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of El Paso Pipeline Partners L.P. (EPB), which in turn is a subsidiary of El Paso Corp. Kinder Morgan Inc. (KMI; BB/Stable/--) announced an agreement to purchase El Paso for $38 billion. When the transaction closes, El Paso will be a wholly owned subsidiary of KMI, and KMI management will have considerable influence over the company's financial and governance policies. Therefore, El Paso's ratings will be aligned with KMI's ratings. However, EPB's stand-alone credit profile is stronger relative to KMI's and El Paso's in our view. We expect that EPB's corporate credit rating to be, at a minimum, closely linked to those of El Paso and KMI. Once the
