OREANDA-NEWS. On 22 August 2008 international rating agency Fitch Ratings has announced an uplift in the long-term issuer default rating (IDR) of OOO BTA Bank, a JSC BTA Bank Russian subsidiary, from B- to B+. At the same time, the issuer’s sovereign rating has been upped to A- with a stable outlook. The bank’s other ratings have been affirmed at B for the short-term IDR and at D/E for the individual rating.

The agency says the two-notch uplift has been due to the successful completion of the purchase by BTA Bank Kazakhstan of more than 52% of shares in BTA Bank Russia. The previously assigned "no support" rating of the long-term IDR support has been withdrawn now that BTA Bank Russia is majority-owned by BTA Bank Kazakhstan, is about to become fully consolidated into the latter’s reports and may count on full support from its institutional owner.

Such factors as further growth of the client base and greater diversity of funding sources, coupled with an acceptable level of credit risk following the purchase, may also result in a higher individual rating of BTA Bank Russia. In light of the fact that BTA Bank’s shareholders are keen on expanding their presence in Russia, the announced plans appear to be quite realistic.

At the same time, the ratings have taken into account the bank’s sound profitability, moderate loan impairment to date and adequate capitalisation.

BTA Bank Russia’s new decidedly positive rating creates a good momentum for the further growth of Group BTA as a whole and, most importantly, serves to improve the bank’s reliability as viewed by the bank’s many clients and partners.

JSC BTA Bank is a major banking institution and leader in CIS expansion. BTA’s consolidated assets grew by 3% in Q12008 to a total of 3,164 billion tenge (USD 26.2 billion) as at April 1, 2008; capital, by 2.1% to a total of 463 billion tenge (USD 3.8 billion). BTA’s first-quarter consolidated net profit amounted to 15.6 billion tenge (USD 129 million), a 25% increase over Q12007.

The network of BTA’s strategic partner banks extends to four regions of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Turkey. BTA’s representative offices operate in Russia, Ukraine, China and UAE. The bank has an extensive branch network throughout Kazakhstan (22 branches and 280 service outlets), largest ATM network (160) and serves more than 1.2 million retail and 100,000 corporate customers. Influential business monthly The Banker placed BTA among its 200 best banks in the world this year. In 2006 and 2007, BTA was named the "Bank of the Year in the CIS", based on a poll of the Commonwealth’s leading financial experts by the authoritative Itogi magazine, and "Best Bank in Central Asia" according to Euromoney. The Oxford, UK-based European Business Assembly awarded to BTA its 2007 "Best Enterprise of Europe" in the banking sector of Eurasia.

OOO BTA Bank Russia, formerly OOO Slavinvestbank, is a universal bank serving corporate customers, private entrepreneurs and retail customers. It has 9 branches and 22 other offices in Russia. The bank’s capital grew by 154% in 2007 to a total of 6.57 billion rubles. The bank’s net profit grew by 188.65% to a total of 625.5 million rubles. Assets grew by 30.97% to a total of 34.7 billion rubles.