Bipolar ratings for Russian gas giant OAO Gazprom

[amoy]

Gazprom given top rating from Dagong|Business|chinadaily.com.cn

Dagong Global Credit Rating Co Ltd on Monday assigned an AAA rating with a stable outlook to Russian natural gas giant OAO Gazprom, despite falling oil prices, the volatile rouble and simmering tension between Europe and Russia.

The move by Dagong, a major Chinese ratings agency, puts Gazprom above the "sovereign ceiling", different from a convention observed by credit agencies that in most situations ranks private-sector debt issuers below their home government.

On Jan 8, Dagong decided to maintain Russia's sovereign rating at A with a stable outlook, in stark contrast with major international raters. Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, for example, on Jan 26 downgraded Russia's sovereign debt a notch to BB+, which means debt sold by the country was categorized as junk.

Moody's Investors Service Inc and Fitch Ratings Inc had previously downgraded Russia's rating to just a notch above "junk" status.

All three agencies assigned a "negative" outlook to Russia's debt.

Dagong said that it had given an AAA rating to the world's biggest natural gas company mainly because of two strategic agreements Gazprom signed with China in May and November to provide natural gas through western and eastern pipelines.

Russian Oil Giant Gazprom Downgraded By Moody's - Forbes

Twenty four hours after Russia's biggest bank was downgraded by Moody's MCO +3.77% Investors Service, the country's biggest oil firm came next. Gazprom was downgraded to Baa3 from Baa2 on Tuesday, which is one notch above junk bond status.

Moody's blamed "severe oil price and exchange rate shock" primarily, but nearly six months of hard core economic sanctions have also taken its toll. Despite Russia's top brass saying their economy was safe from sanctions, it's been struggling mightily since July.

Moody's downgraded Russia's government bond rating to Baa3 from Baa2 on Jan. 16 and placed it under review for further a downgrade. If Russia lost its investment grade status, state-owned Gazprom would surely follow suit. Gazprom investors have been able to weather this storm so far. Shares fell 1.6% on the Micex in Moscow on Tuesday, but it's up 11.85% this year and up 6.53% in the last 12 months.

One man's medicine can be another's poison.

If ratings by Moody Fitch and S&P are reliable there would have been no subprime crisis Agenda driven as usual.

 

[pmaitra]

If ratings by Moody Fitch and S&P are reliable there would have been no subprime crisis Agenda driven as usual.

Standard & Poor ratings are substandard and poorly explained.

As they say, if you cannot explain it to a layman, you probably don't understand it well yourself.

Russia's external debt, on the other hand, continues to drop. It was already low to begin with. So, who really cares about creditworthiness? Russia is better off not borrowing from the west.