Fitch Rates FPL Group Capital's Debenture Issuance 'A'.NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of -- Fitch Ratings Fitch Ratings An international rating agency for financial institutions, insurance companies, and corporate, sovereign, and municipal debt. Fitch Ratings has headquarters in New York and London and is wholly owned by FIMALAC of Paris. has rated FPL Group Capital Inc's (Group Capital) $600 million issuance of 5.625% debenture, series due Sept. 1, 2011 'A'. The Rating Outlook is Stable. Proceeds from the issuance will be added to its general funds. Group Capital expects to use its general funds to fund the maturity of all $600,000,000 principal amount of its 7 5/8% debentures, series due Sept. 15, 2006. Pending such use, Group Capital expects to use its general funds equal to the net proceeds Net Proceeds The amount received after all costs are deducted from the sale of a piece of property or security. Notes: In the case of an investor selling a security, net proceeds represent the proceeds from the sale minus any trading costs (i.e. commissions). to repay a portion of FPL Group Capital's short-term borrowings. The debentures are unconditionally and irrevocably guaranteed by parent company FPL Group, Inc. (FPL). The ratings of FPL reflect the strong financial profile and growing customer base of FPL's primary subsidiary, Florida Power and Light Company (FP&L). A source of concern is the potential shift in the regulatory environment in Florida. Historically, FP&L's relationship with the Florida Public Service Commission Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC) is an independent regulatory agency serving the public of Florida by managing its public utilities such as telecommunications, electricity, natural gas, water, and wastewater. (FPSC FPSC Florida Public Service Commission FPSC Financial Planners Standards Council (Canada) FPSC Field Programmable System Chip (Lucent Technologies) FPSC Fundación Promoción Social de la Cultura ) had been very constructive. However, in an order relating to relating to relate prep → concernant relating to relate prep → bezüglich +gen, mit Bezug auf +acc recovery of 2005 storm damage costs issued in May 2006, the FPSC applied a different standard for recovery than in the 2004 proceeding and accordingly, made certain adjustments and disallowances to the amount sought for recovery. This change in standard, among other things, reduced FPL's net income by approximately $28 million, net of interest. While the magnitude of the adjustments and disallowances was not large as compared the company's overall operations, Fitch is concerned that they are harbingers of a change in regulatory sentiment at the FPSC. Group Capital is a holding company for all of FPL's non-regulated activities, the largest of which is its non-regulated electric generation activities (FPL Energy). FPL Energy owns approximately 13,000 net MW of generation across the spectrum of fuel types and is the largest developer and owner of wind power in the U.S. FPL also owns a small telecommunications subsidiary (FPL FiberNet) which leases wholesale fiber-optic network capacity and dark fiber to FP&L and other customers. Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use Terms of Use are rules set up by the owner of an intellectual property or service to govern how they may be legally used. In many cases, terms of service are used as a contractual agreement between a company and users of a service they provide. of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures Policies and Procedures are a set of documents that describe an organization's policies for operation and the procedures necessary to fulfill the policies. They are often initiated because of some external requirement, such as environmental compliance or other governmental are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. |
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