Zarubezhneft was assigned a credit rating from Expert RA at the ruAAA level
On December 29, the Expert RA rating agency assigned Zarubezhneft JSC a credit rating at the ruAАА level with a stable outlook for the second year in a row (https://raexpert.ru/ratings/credits/). The assigned rating was based on data provided by the Company, as well as information from open sources and Expert RA databases.
During the assessment process, the strategic importance of Zarubezhneft JSC for the state was noted. When assigning the rating, the degree of influence of state control on the financial policy of the company and the implementation of regular monitoring of the financial standing were taken into account.
Resistance of Zarubezhneft JSC to external shocks in the industry was assessed at the economy-average level, owing to the hedging properties of the progressive taxation system of the Group's Russian assets, the relatively low global production cost and the tendency of the national currency to depreciate in times of crisis.
The extensive experience of the Company in joint international projects (including in terms of expertise in the development of complex reservoirs) was noted, and the scale of the Group's activities and the volume of its resource base in accordance with the agency's benchmarks was also taken into account. The Agency positively assessed the factors of liquidity, profitability, debt burden and estimates of the Company's cash flow. It was noted that for the period of two years from December 31, 2020, the operating cash flow and cash balances on accounts, taking into account short-term financial investments and the expected refinancing of short-term debt, cover all areas of liquidity use.
The Agency has positively assessed by the level of strategic support and the quality of the organization of risk management of Zarubezhneft JSC.
The ruAAA rating is the highest creditworthiness level on the national scale and characterizes Zarubezhneft JSC as the company with the highest creditworthiness. The “Stable” outlook assumes that the rating will remain unchanged over a 12-18 months term with the highest probability.
