NRG Energy Inc. Outlook Revised to Positive On Accelerated Debt Pay-downs and Strong Retail Performance; Ratings Affirmed

• NRG Energy Inc.'s business transformation plan has resulted in the sale of several assets that, while reducing scale, have contributed to significantly better financial metrics as debt retirement has been accelerated.
• S&P is revising the outlook on NRG Energy to positive from stable, as well as is affirming their 'BB' issue rating on the company and all issue-level ratings on its debt.
• The positive outlook reflects S&P’s expectation that the company's integrated wholesale and retail power strategy, cost-cutting initiatives, and optimization of assets will drop adjusted debt to EBITDA below 3.0x by year-end 2019 (S&P’s ratios are weaker than the company's calculations due to imputed debt adjustments, as well assumptions of lower power prices).
• The rating is expected to rise by a notch over the next one to two quarters on continued execution of the company's transformation plan and if it meets S&P’s expectation of summer 2019 performance.

 (Source: S&P Global)