OREANDA-NEWS. December 10, 2009. The international rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) raised the long- and short-term corporate credit ratings of TNK-BP International Ltd. (TNK-BP) to ВВВ-/А-3 from ВВ+/В with a stable outlook, reported the press-centre of TNK-BP.

“The upgrade reflects our perception of material improvements in governance and shareholder alignment,” said Standard & Poor’s primary credit analyst Karl Nietvelt.

The upgraded ratings reflect the high efficiency of the new agreement among the shareholders signed in January 2009 and the better alignment of shareholder interests. The ratings were raised after recent meetings between the TNK-BP management and shareholder representatives from Alpha/Access/Renova (AAR) and BP Plc.

“These meetings gave us a better understanding of the reasons behind the conflict of the shareholders last year and the factors behind the improvement of their relationship,” said the rating agency.

According to S&P, AAR and BP have reached better agreement on many issues, in particular, international strategic development, which may be selective and depend on how much the profit from it may exceed the profit from development on the attractive Russian market (for example, implementation of new multi-billion-dollar projects in Yamal), more independent management of the company, more efficient role of its independent directors in balancing the interests of the two shareholders, readiness of the shareholders to ensure long-term development of TNK-BP, and their joint and coordinated stance on organization of possible initial public offering (IPO) of up to 20%.

“Other positive changes in corporate governance practice include the efficient performance of the Board of Directors, which held several meetings and made some important decisions this year, the active role of three independent directors, the recent appointment of Maksim Barsky as General Director of the company (who will enter the office on January 1, 2011 – Interfax-ANI), which we see as yet another sign of accord between the shareholders, and the fact that there were no new discrepancies on important issues between the shareholders after signing the agreement,” says the press release of the rating agency.

“The stable outlook reflects our expectations that TNK-BP will maintain its high financial indicators and stable performance indicators as it did this year,” stressed Mr. Nieltvelt.

TNK-BP noted that the corporate credit rating upgrade by Standard & Poor’s is a positive sign for the company. “Our investment-grade ratings have been raised by all three rating agencies. I think it is acknowledgement of TNK-BP’s strong standings in all spheres of its activity. We have been increasing our production for eight consecutive quarters and replenishing our resource base faster than average in the industry. Apart from that, our new corporate governance structure is functioning very well, which is corroborated by this upgrade of S&P and the recent moves of Fitch and Moody’s,” said Jonathan Muir, Chief Financial Officer of the company in TNK-BP’s statement.