ATF Bank bonds seen launched Friday or next week

/REUTERS, London, April 20, 04/ - The planned bonds for Kazakhstan's fourth largest private bank will probably launch at the end of this week, or early next, with a maturity of three years, bankers in London said on Tuesday. ATF officials are visiting Swiss investors on Tuesday, Austrian bond fund managers on Wednesday and London fund managers on Thursday. The bank is rated Ba1 by Moody Investors Service, which is that ratings agency's highest speculative grade rating. Fitch rates ATF B+, some three notches below Moody's. Speculative grade ratings restrict a borrower to a much narrower range of potential investors than investment grade ratings that begin at Baa3. The Kazakh stock exchange told investors at the start of April that ATF had mandated ING to manage the sale of up to $150 million of new dollar bonds. Two other Kazakh banks have borrowed on international bond markets this year. Bank TuranAlem sold $400 million of new 2014 maturity bonds in March, and Kazkommersbank offered $400 million of 2014 bonds at the start of April. ((reporting by Alexander Manda, editing by Malcolm Whittaker; Reuters Messaging alex.manda.reuters.com@reuters.net; telephone +4420 7542 9361)) [2004-04-20]