Pamela Mooring
Two Principal Credit Rating Agencies Upgrade DC WASA Bond Ratings
May 04, 2010 -- Moody’s Investors Service and Fitch Ratings, two of the three principal credit rating agencies, upgraded the District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA) credit ratings. Moody’s upgraded DC WASA from Aa3 to Aa2 for senior lien revenue bonds. Fitch upgraded the Authority from AA- to AA for senior lien revenue bonds. DC WASA continues to be rated with a “stable” outlook by Moody’s and a “positive” outlook by Fitch.
The upgrade by both credit rating agencies was due to their independent decision to rate DC WASA and other utilities as private enterprises, whereas in the past they were rated as government agencies.
Standard and Poor’s, performed their industry recalibration in 2008 and upgraded DC WASA at that time.
“This is the third consecutive year that DC WASA has received a rating or outlook upgrade,” said DC WASA General Manager George S. Hawkins. “Not only is this a win for DC WASA, but also for our customers—who benefit when we pay lower interest rates, since debt financing accounts for 24 percent of our operating budget.”
“In addition,” added Olu Adebo, DC WASA Chief Financial Officer, “entering this solid AA category expands our base of buyers in the retail and institutional market.” Last year, the Authority had tremendous success going to the bond market, with all $300 million in bonds sold to retail and institutional investors in one day.
About The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority
The District of Columbia Water and Sewer Authority (DC WASA), is an industry leading multi-jurisdictional regional utility that provides drinking water, wastewater collection and treatment to more than 500,000 residential, commercial and governmental customers in the District of Columbia, and also collects and treats wastewater for 1.6 million customers in Montgomery and Prince Georges counties in Maryland and Fairfax and Loudoun counties in Virginia.
DC WASA’s service area covers approximately 725 square miles and the company operates the world’s largest advanced wastewater treatment plant with a capacity of 370 million gallons per day and has a peak capacity of 1.076 billion gallons per day.
