Fitch Ratings-London/Moscow-15 October 2007: Fitch Ratings has today assigned Russian Agricultural Bank's ('RAB') recent RUB10 billion ten-year bond issue a National Long-term rating of 'AAA(rus)'. RAB is rated at Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB+'(BBB plus)/Stable, Short-term IDR 'F2', Individual 'D', Support '2', National Long-term 'AAA(rus)'/Stable and Support Rating Floor ‘BBB+’.
The bank's obligations under the issue will rank at least equally with the claims of other senior unsecured creditors of RAB, save those preferred by relevant legislation. Under Russian law, the claims of retail depositors rank above those of other senior unsecured creditors. At end-2006, retail deposits accounted for 5% of RAB's total liabilities, according to the bank's IFRS accounts.
RAB was founded in 2000 and is 100%-owned by the Federal Agency on Federal Property Management. RAB implements state policies in the agriculture and related sectors, providing credit, settlement and other financial services to these sectors and retail banking services to people living in rural areas. At end-H107, it was one of the 6 largest banks by total assets in Russia and the second largest bank in Russia by regional branch network.
Contact: Alexei Kechko, Moscow, Tel: +7 495 956 9901.
Note to Editors: Fitch's National ratings provide a relative measure of creditworthiness for rated entities in countries with relatively low international sovereign ratings and where there is demand for such ratings. The best risk within a country is rated 'AAA' and other credits are rated only relative to this risk. National ratings are designed for use mainly by local investors in local markets and are signified by the addition of an identifier for the country concerned, such as 'AAA(rus)' for National ratings in Russia. Specific letter grades are not therefore internationally comparable.
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