Fitch подтвердило рейтинги Казахтелекома

/REUTERS, Лондон, Москва, 05.05.05/ - Международное рейтинговое агентство Fitch Ratings подтвердило в четверг долгосрочный необеспеченный рейтинг Казахтелекома по обязательствам в иностранной и местной валюте на уровне "ВВ", а краткосрочный - на уровне "В". Ниже приводится оригинальный текст сообщения агентства Fitch Ratings на английском языке. FITCH AFFIRMS KAZAKHTELECOM AT LONG-TERM "BB"; OUTLOOK STABLE NEW YORK, May 5 - Fitch Ratings, the international rating agency, has today affirmed AO Kazakhtelecom's ("Kaztel", formerly OJSC Kazakhtelecom) ratings at Senior Unsecured foreign currency and local currency 'BB' with StableOutlook and Short-term 'B'. The ratings take into account Kaztel's near-monopoly market position as a national fixed-line incumbent operator with control over PSTN and privileges to carry the dominant share of the country's long-distance traffic. Industry deregulation has so far been slow, which has benefited the company as it continues to capitalise on its near-monopoly position. Although competition is expected to rise, Kaztel is likely to suffer only gradual erosion of its market share as competitors lack trunk infrastructure and will not be able to independently carry their traffic. The company is close to completing the build-out of a new digital trunk network capable of carrying large volumes of both data and voice traffic that will afford Kazakhstan a state-of-the art national backbone network and enable the provision of more advanced telecommunications services across the country. While in future Kaztel may be required to allow other operators to access this network Fitch believes it is well placed to compete with them. Kaztel is exposed to high regulatory risks, given its heavily regulated tariffs and its continuing burden of heavy cross-subsidisation between profitable long-distance and corporate segments and predominantly loss-making rural and residential local services. Kaztel has no direct exposure to mobile business, which limits its growth opportunities and leaves it strategically exposed to fixed-to-mobile substitution. As the government has not set a deadline for issuing the third GSM license in the country, Kaztel's prospects to enter the mobile business appear slim. Although it holds a 49% stake in the leading national mobile operator GSM Kazakhstan (operating under the K-Cell brand name), and a 50% stake in Altel, a fringe CDMA cellular provider, it does not operationally control either company even though it is actively involved in board activities. Although the value of Kaztel's stake in GSM Kazakhstan has appreciated substantially on strong mobile growth, this asset is illiquid. On a positive note, this mobile operator began paying dividends in 2004, which supports Kaztel's operating contribution. Kaztel reported very strong 2004 results with revenues up 21.6% yoy and operating income before debt and amortisation margin at a strong 39.7%. The company's free cash flow turned positive, significantly increasing its financial flexibility. However, the planned 76% increase in capital expenditure (greenfield projects) in 2005 is expected to turn business free cash flow negative again and result in increased debt at Kaztel. The current higher planned investments will reduce the need for investments in future and with a large part of its capital expenditure being discretionary, Kaztel has the flexibility to cut expenditure if needed. Kaztel's leverage is modest with net debt/operating contribution ratio of 0.7x at end-2004, an improvement from the 1.0x seen at end-2003. Leverage is likely to rise to 1.3x-1.4x ND/OC with the company planning to increase its capital expenditure and dividend payments in 2005. However, in the medium-term, leverage is not expected to rise significantly above these levels and could potentially decline if the capital expenditure plans are cut as was the case in 2004. At end-2004 around 50% of the company's debt was secured, reflecting the dominant USD 110 million EBRD loan. Although this loan is partially secured with liquid assets, Fitch believes that the creditors will not be able to easily seize the pledged assets in the event of default and thus does not differentiate between secured and unsecured obligations. Nearly 100% of the company's debt is denominated in foreign currencies, exposing Kaztel to significant FX risks. [2005-05-05]