The credit rating of Akvilon-Leasing LLC (hereinafter, Akvilon-Leasing, or the Company) is based on the moderately weak business profile assessment, fairly strong capital adequacy assessment, and satisfactory risk profile, funding and liquidity assessments.
Akvilon-Leasing is a small leasing company that is based in Penza and has been operating in the leasing market for over 16 years. The Company is focused on leases of various types of equipment, road construction machines, and motor vehicles.
The Company’s credit rating outlook has been changed to Positive to reflect ACRA’s opinion on the possible upgrade of the rating due to higher diversification of funding sources and/or the further decline of the share of related-party assets amid consistent lease portfolio quality.
KEY ASSESSMENT FACTORS
Moderately weak business profile assessment. The Company has maintained a relatively small, in the context of the industry, lease portfolio, which grew by 11% in 2021. The average return on equity and assets over the past three years amounted to about 19% and 4%, respectively.
Akvilon-Leasing’s business diversification is generally assessed as low. The Company is mainly present in its home region, which gives it advantages in working with clients when entering into agreements, assessing their solvency and resolving failures to pay, but makes the Company dependent on limited demand in the region. ACRA notes a decline in the concentration on certain customers and groups but, according to the Agency’s estimates, the concentration is still high: the largest counterparty accounts for 21% of the lease portfolio (28% a year earlier), while the ten largest groups of customers account for 74% (81% a year earlier). The portfolio is diversified by types of equipment: as of December 31, 2021, 25% was power equipment, 30% was metallurgical and machine building equipment, 17% was woodworking equipment, and food industry equipment was 9%. The share of motor vehicle and road construction assets stood at 15% on the aforementioned date.
Fairly strong capital adequacy assessment. The Company has maintained a high level of capital adequacy. According to the Company’s RAS financial statements, the capital adequacy ratio (CAR) was 21% as of December 31, 2021. The averaged capital generation ratio (ACGR), calculated for the past five years, is 274 bps, taking into account dividend payments made by the Company in the past three years.
Satisfactory risk profile assessment. ACRA notes the absence of overdue receivables and forcedly restructured contracts, as well as the low share of potentially non-performing leases as of December 31, 2021. The high concentration of the lease portfolio has a negative impact on the risk profile assessment. ACRA notes a decrease in the share of assets attributable to related parties, the presence on the balance sheet of non-core assets in the form of issued loans and funds deposited with PJSC Kuznetsky Bank (ACRA rating B+(RU), outlook Stable).
Satisfactory funding and liquidity assessment. ACRA notes a positive trend in the funding structure of the Company. A bond issue made in 2021 allowed the Company to reduce the share of the main funding source (bank loans (55% of liabilities as of December 30, 2021, compared to 61% a year earlier). Other funding sources included bond issues (11%), advances paid by lessees (7%), and equity (21%). The largest lender/five largest lenders accounted for 42%/14% of liabilities, respectively.
The liquidity position is satisfactory because the current liquidity ratio for the next 12 to 24 months is projected at around 1.1 in ACRA’s base case scenario (taking into account plans to grow new business and existing contracts). In ACRA’s stress scenario, the Company showed an increased need for emergency liquidity in certain periods.
KEY ASSUMPTIONS
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Maintaining the Company’s business model over the 12 to 18-month horizon;
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CAR at no less than 15% over the 12 to 18-month horizon;
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Less than 5% share of non-performing and potentially non-performing leases.
POTENTIAL OUTLOOK OR RATING CHANGE FACTORS
The Positive outlook assumes that the rating will highly likely be upgraded within the 12 to 18-month horizon.
A positive rating action may be prompted by:
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Further growth in funding structure diversification;
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Decline in the share of assets attributable to related-party transactions;
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Significant strengthening of the Company’s positions in the Russian leasing market;
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Higher liquidity of leased items and much lower concentration of the lease portfolio on major lessees and sectors.
A negative rating action may be prompted by:
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Significant deterioration of lease portfolio quality;
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Significant decline of CAR and/or the Company’s ability to generate capital.
RATING COMPONENTS
Standalone creditworthiness assessment (SCA): bb.
Adjustments: none.
Support: none.
ISSUE RATINGS
No outstanding issues have been rated.
REGULATORY DISCLOSURE
The credit rating has been assigned to Akvilon-Leasing LLC under the national scale for the Russian Federation based on the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Leasing Companies on the National Scale for the Russian Federation, and the Key Concepts Used by the Analytical Credit Rating Agency within the Scope of Its Rating Activities.
The credit rating of Akvilon-Leasing LLC was published by ACRA for the first time on July 9, 2021. The credit rating of Akvilon-Leasing LLC and its outlook are expected to be revised within one year following the publication date of this press release.
The credit rating was assigned based on data provided by Akvilon-Leasing LLC, information from publicly available sources, and ACRA’s own databases. The rating analysis was performed using the IFRS financial statements and RAS financial statements of Akvilon-Leasing LLC. The credit rating is solicited, and Akvilon-Leasing LLC participated in its assignment.
The deviation from the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Leasing Companies on the National Scale for the Russian Federation: the risk profile has been assessed with a deviation from the applicable methodology in order to take into account the negative impact of the very high concentration of credit risk.
In assigning the credit rating, ACRA used only information, the quality and reliability of which was, in ACRA’s opinion, appropriate and sufficient to apply the methodologies.
ACRA provided no additional services to Akvilon-Leasing LLC. No conflicts of interest were discovered in the course of credit rating assignment.
