Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov. 28
By Ali Mustafayev – Trend:
S&P Global Ratings said today that it has lowered its long-term corporate credit ratings on Kazakhstan-based KazTransOil (KTO), KazTransGas (KTG), and KTG's core subsidiary Intergas Central Asia JSC from 'BB' to 'BB-'.
The outlooks on all three companies are stable.
The downgrades follow the lowering of S&P’s ratings on the immediate parent KazMunayGas ("KazMunayGas” rating was lowered to 'BB-' On Weakening State Support on November 23).
“We consider both companies to be government-related entities and have not changed our view of the likelihood of these companies receiving extraordinary support from the government of Kazakhstan if needed,” S&P reported.
At the same time the company doesn’t expect to rate these subsidiaries higher than their parent KazMunaiGas.
“This is because, in our view, there are no effective insulation mechanisms, and the subsidiaries are not protected from potential negative intervention from KMG, whose stand-alone credit profile (SACP) we assess at ‘b’.”
Hence, the downgrade of KMG led to a similar rating action on KTO and KTG.
KazMunayGas is the state-owned oil and gas company of Kazakhstan. It was founded in 2002 by merging Kazakhoil and Oil and Gas Transportation. 90% of the shares of the company are managed by National Welfare Fund “Samruk-Kazyna.” Ten percent of KMG shares belong to the National Bank of the Republic of Kazakhstan.