OREANDA-NEWS.  On August 2nd, 2013 Moody’s Investors Service assigned a Baa2 senior unsecured issuer rating to the Russian state holding JSC “Atomic Energy Power Corporation” (JSC Atomenergoprom), which consolidates the civil assets of the Russian nuclear industry. The outlook on the rating is stable. Besides, an Aaa.ru national scale rating is also assigned to Atomenergoprom. JSC Atomenergoprom is a part of the Rosatom State Corporation.

According to Moody’s Investors Service, the factors positively influencing the ratings assigned are the significant state support of the nuclear industry development programs and a very close linkage with the government of the Russian Federation, stipulated by the strategic importance of Atomenergoprom for the Russian economy, as well as sustainable integrated business model of the company, ensuring the whole production cycle of the nuclear industry – from uranium mining and nuclear fuel production to NPP construction and electric power generation.

In the press-release of the rating agency it is noted that the company is the single operator of the Russian nuclear power plants benefiting from relatively low operating costs and high capacity factor and holds leading positions in all the key segments of its operations in the world nuclear market. Moody’s Investors Service also emphasizes on the strategic character of cooperation between Atomenergoprom and the state-owned banks.

Furthermore, in the opinion of the rating agency the influence of the factors mentioned above is mainly constrained by the developing corporate structure of the company; a large investment program rendering Atomenergoprom fully dependent on access to external funding, and inherent risks related to operations of nuclear businesses.

"The second credit rating is one of the stages of our intensive work targeted at the Russian civil nuclear industry efficiency and transparency increase. Availability of the high credit ratings gives us an opportunity to ensure the objective perception of the nuclear power complex enterprises by the Russian and foreign investors as well as the diversification of the financing instruments", said First Deputy Director General – CFO of ROSATOM Nikolay Solomon.

Atomenergoprom has also a BBB issuer credit rating assigned earlier by Standard & Poor’s, which is equal to the sovereign rating of the Russian Federation; outlook "stable".