ACRA ASSIGNS AA-(RU) TO THE SERIES 002P-02 BOND (RU000A105KB0) ISSUED BY JSC “GTLK”

Credit rating rationale. The issue represents senior unsecured debt of JSC “GTLK” (the Company). Due to the absence of either structural or contractual subordination of the issue, ACRA regards it as pari passu with other existing and future unsecured and unsubordinated debt obligations of the Company. According to ACRA’s methodology, the credit rating of the issue is equivalent to that of the Company, i.e. AA-(RU).

The credit rating of the Company is based on the very high likelihood of extraordinary support from the state. The Company’s creditworthiness is assessed as high compared to other Russia-based issuers.

Key issue properties

Source: ACRA, issuer’s data

Regulatory disclosure

The credit rating has been assigned under the national scale for the Russian Federation based on the Methodology for Assigning Credit Ratings to Financial Instruments under 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.

A credit rating has been assigned to the 002Р-02 series bond (RU000A105KB0) of JSC “GTLK” for the first time. The credit rating is expected to be revised within one year following the publication date of this press release.

The credit rating was assigned based on the data provided by JSC “GTLK”, information from publicly available sources, as well as ACRA’s own databases. The credit rating is solicited, and JSC “GTLK” participated in its assignment.

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 additional services to JSC “GTLK”. No conflicts of interest were discovered in the course of credit rating assignment.