El Paso Electric bond credit rating gets a downgrade from Moody's
El Paso Electric's credit rating on $1.2 billion of bond debt was slightly downgraded Tuesday by Moody's Investors Services.
The downgrade was due mostly to the company's projected increase in capital spending of about $300 million per year in the next several years, and decreased cash flow due to the loss of some federal tax deductions as the result of new federal tax laws that took effect in 2018, Moody's reported in a news release.
The fundamentals of the utility's business are weaker, Nana Hamilton, a Moody's analyst told the El Paso Times in July when the utility's credit rating was under review by Moody's.
The credit rating downgrade could possibly affect the interest rate on El Paso Electric's bond debt, or "could make it harder for it to issue bonds later," Moody's Hamilton said in July.
Read more: https://www.elpasotimes.com/story/money/business/2019/09/18/moodys-downgrades-el-paso-electric-bond-credit-rating/2367364001/