Moody's upgrades Norilsk Nickel
Moody's Investors Service has upgraded the corporate family ratings of Russia’s Norilsk Nickel to Baa2 from Ba1 and unsecured issuer ratings to Baa2 from Ba2, eliminating a notch and raising the company’s rating to investment grade, RBC reports.
Moody's last rating action on Norilsk Nickel was on 23 August 2006, when the ratings agency placed all the company’s ratings under review for possible upgrade.
The upgrade “recognizes Norilsk's intrinsic strong fundamentals and reflects Moody's view that the on-going development of Norilsk Nickel's operating and financial profile, manifested in the new mining strategy of the company announced in June 2006, as well as its continuous efforts to improve the efficiency of its operations, should allow Norilsk Nickel to maintain stable production volumes and support its competitive cost position in the production of its key metals,” Moody’s said. The outlook is stable.
