HTTPS request in iOS 9

I'm updating my app to accommodate Apple's new ATS. Without any changes to the Plist-Info,the following code throws an error at sendSynchronousRequest() in a vanilla iOS 9 simulator.

NSURL *url  =[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://Google.com"];
NSMutableURLRequest *request = [[NSMutableURLRequest alloc]init];
[request setHTTPMethod:@"GET"];
[request setURL:url];

NSURLResponse *urlResponse = nil;
NSError *error = nil;    
NSData *reponse = [NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:request
                                        returningResponse:&urlResponse
                                                    error:&error];

Error:

NSURLSession/NSURLConnection HTTP load failed (kCFStreamErrorDomainSSL, -9802)

Any thoughts as to what might be behind this issue?

Ps: I understand that NSURLConnection is deprecated. But this invocations works find if I add AllowArbitraryLoads in Plist.