Credit ratings

In December 2021, JSC INK-Capital issued its debut bonds worth 5 billion roubles in nominal value that became the first issue of adaptation bonds in the Russian Federation in accordance with Governmental Decree No. 1587 of the Russian Federation dated September 21, 2021. The issue meets the principles of transition bonds set out in The Climate Transition Finance Handbook of the International Capital Market Association (ICMA).

For the bonds to be included in the second-level quotation list of the Moscow Exchange and remain there, in November 2021 the rating agencies Expert RA and ACRA assigned ruA+ and А+(RU) credit ratings (respectively) to JSC INK-Capital, after which the bonds were rated accordingly. 

In October 2022, Expert RA confirmed the ruA+ credit rating of the company with a stable outlook. 

In their press releases, rating agencies noted the following factors when evaluating JSC INK-Capital among other things:

• business concentration (Expert),
  
• low leverage of the INK-Capital Group (Expert, ACRA),
  
• high coverage of interest payments (ACRA),
  
• profitability (Expert, ACRA),
  
• strong operational risk profile (ACRA),
  
• liquidity (Expert, ACRA),
  
• hedging, risk management and corporate governance (Expert, ACRA).
  

Two years later, in October 2023, Expert RA raised the credit rating of JSC INK-Capital and the rating of its bonds  to ruAА- with a stable outlook. Experts reviewed the credit quality of the INK Group as a whole based on the consolidated financial statements of JSC INK-Capital for 2022. Along with the factors noted by Expert RA earlier, the agency made a positive opinion of the financial results in the challenging reporting period, the remarkably low leverage, high-standard corporate governance, management strategy and structure, risk management, and financial transparency.