On 23rd August 2010 the Fitch Ratings agency confirmed the international long-term credit rating (issuer default rating) of OJSC North-West Telecom at the “BB” level and the national long-term credit rating of OJSC N.W.Telecom, “ÀÀ- (rus)”, having raised the forecast from “Stable” to “ Positive” . The short-term rating of the Company in the foreign currency has been confirmed at the “B” level.

  The change of the forecast for the ratings is accounted for by Fitch Ratings’ analysts’ expectations that “the forthcoming merger of six regional traditional telecom providers and Rostelecom will give a serious operational and financial synergy effect.”

According to the rating agency, the united provider will get such advantages as:

• a more clear-cut operational strategy in all region s of the activities and market segments;
• strengthening of the products offered by the provider through uniting the service s (especially in the mass population service segment);
• a possibility of maintaining a single brand;
• Improving finance and debt management efficiency.
• At the moment, the group’s leverage after the merger is estimated by analysts as low: it is forecasted that as of the end of 2010 the ratio of net debt to EBITDA will be at a level of about 1x.

You can get more detailed information on the agency’s web site https://www.fitchratings.com.

Today, besides the Fitch Ratings’ credit rating, OJSC North-West Telecom has the international credit rating at the “BB-“ level and the national rating at the”ruAA-“ level confirmed by the Standard & Poor’s rating agency in March 2010.