S&P Global Ratings upgraded its long-term issuer credit ratings on Florida Power & Light Co. and Gulf Power Co. to A from A- and removed the ratings from under criteria observation.

The rating agency also upgraded the utilities' senior unsecured notes to A from A- and their commercial paper ratings to A-1 from A-2, and it raised FPL's senior secure debt rating to A+ from A. The outlook on all the ratings is stable.

The upgrades conclude the rating agency's review of its new rating criteria and reflect that both NextEra Energy Inc. subsidiaries are well-insulated from their parent company.

The stable outlook on FPL reflects "our base case assumption that the utility will generate sufficient cash flow to maintain financial measures that support a funds from operations-to-debt ratio of 29% to 31% over the next three years," S&P Global Rating said in a Dec. 24 rating action.

The agency also believes that Gulf Power will be able to support a funds from operations-to-debt ratio of 20% to 24% over the next three years.

This S&P Global Market Intelligence news article may contain information about credit ratings issued by S&P Global Ratings. Descriptions in this news article were not prepared by S&P Global Ratings.