Moody's confirms ratings for Transneft, Atomenergoprom, FGC UES, outlook negative
MOSCOW. July 2 (Interfax) - International ratings agency Moody's Investors Service confirmed the ratings of Transneft , Atomenergoprom and Federal Grid Company of Unified Energy System (FGC UES), the agency said in a press release.
Transneft's issuer rating was confirmed at Baa1, Atomenergoprom at Baa2 and FGC UES at Baa3. All three ratings have negative outlook.
"Today's rating actions follow Moody's confirmation of Russia's government bond rating at Baa1 with a negative outlook on 27 June 2014 and conclude the review process on the ratings of Transneft, Atomenergoprom and FGC UES initiated on 3 April 2014," Moody's said.
"As Transneft, Atomenergoprom and FGC UES are controlled by the Russian government, their ratings fall under Moody's methodology for government-related issuers and benefit from an uplift to the companies' standalone credit quality, which is measured by a baseline credit assessment (BCA), driven by the probability of state support," the agency said.
"Today's confirmation of the ratings of Transneft, Atomenergoprom and FGC UES reflects the strong linkages of the ratings with the Russian sovereign rating and their high sensitivity to changes in sovereign creditworthiness," Moody's said.
"The negative outlook on all the ratings mirrors that on the sovereign, reflecting that a downgrade of Russia's sovereign rating could result in a downgrade of the companies' ratings," the press release says.
"Upward pressure on Transneft's, Atomenergoprom's and FGC UES's ratings is unlikely at present, given the negative outlook on the ratings. Moody's could change the outlook on the ratings to stable if it were to change the outlook on Russia's government bond rating to stable, provided there is no material deterioration in company-specific factors, including operating and financial performance and liquidity," the agency said.
In addition, Moody's Interfax has confirmed the company's national scale ratings at Aaa.ru, following a review that resulted in the ratings being set on April 3.