Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P) said Friday that it lowered its long-term corporate credit rating on Oneok Inc. to ‘A-‘ from ‘A’, and its short-term corporate credit and commercial paper ratings on the company to ‘A-2’ from ‘A-1’. Despite the downgrade, S&P noted that the outlook is stable. “The rating change reflects both the increase in leverage since the ‘A’ rating was assigned and the increasing scale of the higher-risk marketing and trading group, which now accounts for nearly 50% of operating income,” said Standard & Poor’s credit analyst Judith Waite. “Consequently, the business position has been lowered to ‘6’ (weak average) from ‘5’.” Business profiles are categorized from ‘1’ (strong) to ’10’ (weak). S&P added that over the past four years, Oneok has acquired a substantial portfolio of assets and built up a formidable presence in the mid-continent market for gas transportation, distribution, processing, gathering, and storage. While funding many of the acquisitions with equity and the proceeds of asset sales, the company also used debt, which weakened the financial profile, S&P said.

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