New York, April 07, 2011 -- Moody's Investors Service has withdrawn all debt ratings for MDU
Resources Group, Inc. (MDU) and its subsidiaries Centennial
Energy Holdings, Inc. (Centennial) and Cascade Natural Gas
Corporation (Cascade) at the request of the issuer.
RATINGS RATIONALE
The credit rating has been withdrawn because Moody's Investors Service
believes it has insufficient or otherwise inadequate information to support
the maintenance of the credit ratings. Please refer to Moody's
Investors Service's Withdrawal Policy, which can be found
on our website, www.moodys.com.
The following ratings were withdrawn:
Outlook Actions:
..Issuer: Cascade Natural Gas Corp.
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Withdrawn
From Stable
..Issuer: Centennial Energy Holdings, Inc.
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Withdrawn
From Stable
..Issuer: MDU Resources Group, Inc.
....Outlook, Changed To Rating Withdrawn
From Stable
Withdrawals:
..Issuer: Cascade Natural Gas Corp.
....Senior Unsecured Medium-Term Note
Program, Withdrawn, previously rated (P)Baa1
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn, previously rated Baa1
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn, previously rated Baa1
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn, previously rated Baa1
..Issuer: Centennial Energy Holdings, Inc.
....Senior Unsecured Commercial Paper,
Withdrawn, previously rated NP
..Issuer: MDU Resources Group, Inc.
.... Commercial Paper, Withdrawn,
previously rated P-2
.... Issuer Rating, Withdrawn,
previously rated Baa1
....Preferred Stock Preferred Stock,
Withdrawn, previously rated Baa3
....Senior Unsecured Regular Bond/Debenture,
Withdrawn, previously rated Baa1
The last rating action for the MDU companies was on April 13, 2010
when Moody's affirmed the ratings for MDU, Centennial and Cascade
and revised the outlook to stable.
The principal methodologies used in rating MDU was Moody's Regulated Electric
and Gas Utilities Rating Methodology, published August 2009,
and the methodologies applicable to Centennial. The principal methodologies
used in rating Centennial include Moody's Global Independent Exploration
and Production Industry Rating Methodology, published in December
2008 and Moody's Global Building Materials Industry, published in
July 2009. The methodology used in rating Cascade was the above-mentioned
Regulated Electric and Gas Utilities Rating Methodology. All of
these Rating Methodologies are available on www.moodys.com
in the Rating Methodologies sub-directory under the Research and
Ratings tab. Other methodologies and factors that may have been
considered in the process of rating these issuers can also be found in
the Rating Methodologies sub-directory on Moody's website.
MDU Resources Group, Inc. is a diversified natural resource
company that is headquartered in Bismarck, North Dakota.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURES
Information sources used to prepare the credit ratings are the following:
parties involved in the ratings, public information, and confidential
and proprietary Moody's Investors Service information.
Moody's adopts all necessary measures so that the information it uses
in assigning a credit rating is of sufficient quality and from sources
Moody's considers to be reliable including, when appropriate,
independent third-party sources. However, Moody's
is not an auditor and cannot in every instance independently verify or
validate information received in the rating process.
Please see ratings tab on the issuer/entity page on Moodys.com
for the last rating action and the rating history.
The date on which some Credit Ratings were first released goes back to
a time before Moody's Investors Service's Credit Ratings were fully digitized
and accurate data may not be available. Consequently, Moody's
Investors Service provides a date that it believes is the most reliable
and accurate based on the information that is available to it.
Please see the ratings disclosure page on our website www.moodys.com
for further information.
Please see the Credit Policy page on Moodys.com for the methodologies
used in determining ratings, further information on the meaning
of each rating category and the definition of default and recovery.
New York
Mihoko Manabe
VP - Senior Credit Officer
Infrastructure Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
New York
William L. Hess
MD - Utilities
Infrastructure Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's Investors Service
250 Greenwich Street
New York, NY 10007
U.S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 212-553-0376
SUBSCRIBERS: 212-553-1653
Moody's withdraws MDU Resources ratings