FitchRatings

 Fitch Ratings.  Record-high natural gas prices are putting pressure on supply chains of many European corporate sectors, including non-integrated energy suppliers, fertilizer producers and consumer goods companies.  According to Fitch Ratings smaller companies in these industries are under the most pressure, while larger and more diversified issuers rated by Fitch are better positioned to mitigate the impact. Gas prices could remain high until the end of the winter heating season, given low levels of natural gas in European storage facilities.

The international rating agency Fitch Ratings has updated the forecast on the Long-term Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs) of Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Lviv, Mariupol, Mykolaiv, and Odesa in foreign and local currency from “stable” to “positive” after the sovereign rating action. The rating action did not alter the assessment of their creditworthiness on a stand-alone basis – for all 7 cities it corresponds to the “b +” level.

 — Oschadbank, PrivatBank, Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank — from ‘stable’ to ‘positive.’ The Moscow office of Fitch confirmed at ‘B’ their long-term issuer default ratings in foreign and national currency. Ukraine’s sovereign rating is also ‘B.’

the agency announced on April 29. The change reflects the company’s weakened liquidity position, according to the agency’s assessments. As of April, Ukrainian Railway’s liquidity coverage ratio, calculated as available undrawn lines of credit and cash/scheduled repayments, was less than 1x. “The company’s immediate liquidity position is insufficient to offset expected repayments of a local bank loan (USD116 million or equivalent UAH 3,225 million) maturing on 30 May. The company’s available immediate liquidity (as of 26 April 2021) is UAH

“The Long-term Local Currency IDR of MHP SE at ‘B +’ reflects a growing share of profits outside the country, as well as a strong business profile of MHP with a reasonable scale and vertical integration, which leads to high operating profitability”, – stated in the message by Fitch on Friday. Fitch stressed that MHP has a strong business and financial profile, in line with its peers in the ‘BB’ rating category, but the operating environment in Ukraine limits its