Fitch Upgrades Westminster, Colorado Utility Revs to 'AA+'.AUSTIN, Texas -- In the course of routine surveillance, Fitch fitch: see polecat. upgrades to 'AA+' from 'AA' the underlying ratings on the City of Westminster Noun 1. City of Westminster - a borough of Greater London on the Thames; contains Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey Westminster , Colorado's (the city) outstanding water and wastewater utility enterprise (the utility) bonds as follows: --$14.1 million water and wastewater revenue refunding bonds refunding bond A bond that is issued for the purpose of retiring an outstanding bond. Issuers refund bond issues to reduce financing costs, eliminate covenants, and alter maturities. See also crossover refunding bonds, prerefunding. , series 2001; --$6.4 million variable rate demand water and wastewater revenue bonds, series 2002. The Rating Outlook is Stable. The upgrade to 'AA+' reflects the utility's continued strong operating performance, future-oriented capital planning and financial policies, and strong service area economic underpinnings. Located in the Denver metropolitan area, the city is approaching build-out which limits growth pressures. Operations have generated sizeable annual debt service coverage over the last five fiscal years, averaging 5.1 times on an all-in basis. Liquidity is also ample, both in terms of cash and working capital. Customer debt levels are moderate but no new debt is forecasted through at least fiscal 2011, allowing for these levels to decline rapidly over the next five years as debt is amortized. There is some reliance on connection fees to fund ongoing capital requirements Capital requirements Financing required for the operation of a business, composed of long-term and working capital plus fixed assets. , but Fitch considers this exposure manageable. Furthermore, user charges are low, providing ample room for the city to make upward adjustments to fund the capital program if needed. 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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