Azerbaijan, Baku, June 11 / Trend E. Kosolapova/
Standard & Poor's international rating agency (S&P) upgraded the long-term credit rating of Kazakh National Company KazTransGas from 'BB' to 'BB+', the company reported on Monday.
The outlook of rating change is stable.
The rating upgrade reflects the importance and effectiveness of this state-controlled company and due to high expectations of generated cash flow performance and moderate forecast debt levels.
According to S&P a positive impact on the group's business profile is caused by a relatively stable variable nature of the gas transport (which accounted for about 37 percent of the company's total revenues in 2011), the condition "take or pay" until the end of 2015 under a new contract with the Open Joint-Stock Company "Gazprom" and the favorable location of the transit gas pipeline group.
Evaluation of the financial profile "KTG" is revised from aggressive to considerable because of the moderate forecast debt levels, sufficient indicators of liquidity, substantial cash reserves, a favorable schedule of debt repayment and high rates of cash flow.
According to the agency the positive influence of these factors neutralizes the massive planned investments of "KTG" in the development of gas transportation and distribution, that according to S&P are $400 million per year, and foreign exchange risk as far as more than 90 percent of the company's debt is denominated in U.S. dollars.