OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings said today that it has affirmed its 'BB+/B' foreign currency and 'BBB-/A-3' local currency long - and short-term counterparty credit ratings on Russia-based JSC VEB-leasing. The outlooks are negative.

At the same time, we affirmed our 'ruAAA' Russia national scale rating on VEB-leasing.

The affirmation follows that of VEB-leasing's 100% owner, Vnesheconombank (VEB). We regard VEB-leasing as a core subsidiary of VEB and equalize the ratings on VEB-leasing with those on the parent.

We expect that VEB-leasing will remain within the VEB group, for which it acts as the leasing arm. Accordingly, we expect that VEB-leasing will receive ongoing and extraordinary support from VEB in the form of capital and liquidity. In our view, the leasing company is a nonseverable part of the larger VEB group.

The negative outlook on VEB-leasing mirrors that on its parent. This means that the ratings and outlook on VEB-leasing will move in tandem with those on VEB as long as the subsidiary remains core to the group.

We could revise our view of VEB-leasing's core group status if VEB were to divest part of the leasing subsidiary or if the group no longer had the financial capacity to support VEB-leasing. Both scenarios appear currently remote, however.