MELBOURNE (Standard&Poor's) May 14, 2014--Standard&Poor's Ratings Services said today that it had affirmed its 'A-/A-2' ratings on Telecom Corp. of New Zealand Ltd. (TCNZ) and TCNZ's related debt issues and programs. The outlook remains stable. "The rating affirmation follows our view that TCNZ's financial risk profile has improved because of lower debt levels due to cash inflows from the divestment of noncore assets, and its supportive financial policy framework," Standard&Poor's credit analyst Paul Draffin said. "As a result, we have revised the group's financial risk profile to "minimal" from "modest", and maintained its "satisfactory" business risk profile. Nevertheless, we consider TCNZ to be weaker than its 'A' rated peers." Our "satisfactory" business risk profile
