TASHKENT, Uzbekistan, December 19. Moody's Investors Service has assigned a first-time B1 corporate family rating (CFR) and a CAA1 Baseline Credit Assessment (BCA) to Uzkimyosanoat JSC, the leading 100 percent state-owned diversified chemical group of companies in Uzbekistan with a stable outlook, Trend reports.
As per Moody’s, Uzkimyosanoat’s B1 rating reflects a high degree of uncertainty over the actual evolution of the company's credit profile, taking into account the ongoing industry and business transformation under the country's economic reforms that aim at reducing the state's presence in the chemical sector through a major privatization program.
The service analysts state that Uzbekistan’s ambitious sector development strategy involves a large investment program, with Uzkimyosanoat’s ultimate involvement in it still being finalized and the company's unclear ability to execute its sizeable investment plan amid limited funding options as the government ceases its explicit and extensive support for new financing and potentially excessive leverage.
“However, these risks are balanced by Uzkimyosanoat’s continued strategic importance to the sector and the state, which, coupled with the fact that all the company's existing debt remains guaranteed by the government, underpins Moody's assumption of the still strong extraordinary state support, at least in the medium-term.
In particular, under the economic reform focused on introducing market pricing mechanisms and attracting investment in Uzbekistan through wide-scale privatization, in 2023–25, Uzkimyosanoat plans to dispose of a number of operating subsidiaries that generated around 40 percent of its 2022 revenue. At the same time, the company will retain control over OJSC Navoiazo, the country's largest and most important producer of nitrogen fertilizers and other chemical products, and will preserve its dominant position in export operations and domestic exchange trading,” the report says.
