OREANDA-NEWS. On 02 March 2009 was announced, that Standard&Poors (S&P) rating agency downgraded the international scale long term ratings of Ukrsotsbank < USCB UZ U/R >, Kredobank < ZUKB UZ N/R > and Alfa-bank (Ukraine) from "B" to "CCC+", while their short term ratings were downgraded from "B" to "C", retaining negative rating outlook.

Millennium Capital sees the news to be NEGATIVE for USCB and Alfa-Bank, since both of them have syndicated loans (USD 450mn and USD 50mn, respectively) maturing in 2009, while the support of their parent banks weakened in early 2009 related to the liquidity shortage. Their rating downgrades could initiate the premature loan repayment requests. At the same time, Millennium Capital expects no significant negative effect of the news on ZUKB performance, since it has no external loans maturing in 2009 other than from its parent PKO Bank Polski. Meanwhile PKO bank announced significant support of ZUKB (UAH 1bn) recently.

Millennium Capital is an integrated financial services provider. Established in 2000 by a group of professionals with solid background in securities and corporate finance, Millennium Capital is now one of the major investment banking institutions.