OREANDA-NEWS  On 05 September Credit-Rating, a nationally recognized credit rating agency in Ukraine, announced that it assigned a long-term credit rating of uaB to registered coupon bonds (series A) to be issued by Kiev-based Leks PE (`issuer` or `company`). The amount of the issue is to be UAH47m, with 7-year original maturity. The company`s principal activity is grain growing and trading and car selling. In the course of analysis Credit-Rating considered issuer`s financial statements for 2003-2007 as well as its other inside information.

An obligor or a debt liability with uaB credit rating is characterized with the LOW creditworthiness as compared to other Ukrainian obligors or debt liabilities. This level of creditworthiness is extremely susceptible to adverse changes in commercial, financial and economic conditions.

Factors maintaining the credit rating
Growth in issuer`s sales recorded in the past few years, specifically the amount of earnings recorded in 2007 rose 6.4x and made up UAH191.4m, with 60.6% of it gained for cars and 11.8% - for grains.
The demand for foreign-manufactured cars has been growing over the past few years.

Factors constraining the credit rating
Issuer`s high debt burden: the amount of the debt exceeds 7x the EBITDA for 2007.
Issuer`s dependency upon a single supplier, which specific gravity in the structure of car supplies is almost 80% (in monetary units).
Seasonality in sales of agricultural produce and its dependency upon climate and weather conditions.