Moody's присвоило Атырауской области (Казахстан) долговые рейтинги "В1"

/Алматинское бюро REUTERS, Лондон, 08.06.01/ - Рейтинговое агентство Moody's Investors Service присвоило Атыраусской области Казахстана рейтинги эмитента долговых обязательств в иностранной и местной валюте на уровне "В1", прогноз рейтингов - положительный, говорится в сообщении агентства. Это первые рейтинги, который Moody's присвоило одному из регионов Казахстана. Их уровень отражает, среди прочего, сильный экономический потенциал области, низкий размер ее долговых обязательств и высокую степень контроля центрального правительства за действиями региональных администраций. В то же время агентство отмечает недостаточную диверсификацию доходов областного бюджета из-за его высокой зависимости от поступлений налогов от предприятий нефтяной индустрии, необходимость перечислять большую часть доходов Центру и значительный размер расходов на поддержание инфраструктуры. Ниже следует оригинал сообщения на английском языке: (The following statement was released by the rating agency) LONDON, June 8 (Reuters) - Moody's Investors Service has assigned B1 foreign currency and B1 domestic currency issuer ratings to the Atyrau Oblast (positive outlook). This is the first public rating Moody's has assigned to a Kazakh regional government. Moody's said that the ratings reflect the strong economic potential of the region, the Oblast's low debt levels, its large operating surpluses and the high level of central government oversight of local governments. However, the ratings also take into account the negative impact of the current "withdrawal" system, whereby central government takes a large proportion of the Oblast's revenues, the lack of diversification of the Oblast budget revenues due to its strong dependence on taxes from the oil industry, the low level of revenue flexibility, and the large infrastructure requirements of the region. The rating agency said that the Atyrau Oblast is one of the regions in Kazakhstan with the greatest economic potential due to its large oil and gas resources. This is expected to have a beneficial effect on the Oblast's finances, and underlines the positive outlook assigned to the Oblast's ratings. Currently approximately 40% of Kazakhstan's oil and 60% of its gas production comes from the Oblast. The major onshore oil field is Tengiz (operated by Tengizchevroil). In addition, the recently discovered offshore reserves at Kashagan being explored by the international consortium OKIOC, could potentially dwarf existing oil production. Moody's expects this discovery to lead to significant investment into the region over the next decade. Nevertheless, Moody's noted that although it expects the region to benefit from growing tax revenues, at the same time an increasingly large proportion of the region's revenues are being taken away by the government in their system of budget "withdrawals." The withdrawal amounts are decided annually by central government and the method for calculating them is not transparent. This creates additional uncertainty for the budget, when the region's revenue base is already extremely susceptible to the profitability of the oil industry and fluctuates in accordance with the level of world oil prices. This was reflected in lower than expected tax revenues in 1998 and a big increase in revenues in 1999 and 2000. Some of this risk will be removed by the government's establishment of a National Fund, which smoothes out the impact of fluctuating tax revenues. Moody's pointed out that the region has been investing in its local infrastructure but large infrastructure requirements remain, including further improvement of roads, gas supplies and healthcare. The region has currently very little debt and capital investment to date has been funded through its own large operating surpluses. It is likely that the region will raise new debt in the form of a domestic bond issue or loans from international financial institutions, but Moody's expects debt service levels to remain manageable. The rating agency noted that the Kazakh local government system provides a high level of central government oversight and controls, but also allows the regions little revenue flexibility as tax rates are decided by central government. Moody's believes the current local government framework, which has been developed over the last couple of years, has created a more stable operating environment for regions, but that an improvement of the withdrawal system will be an important credit rating factor for regions such as Atyrau Oblast. The Atyrau Oblast is situated in western Kazakhstan and borders the Caspian Sea. It has a population of 446,400 (3% of Kazakhstan's population). ((London Capital Markets +44-20-7542 7658