OREANDA-NEWS. On 11 August 2009 was announced, that on Friday Standard & Poor’s upgraded Alfa Bank Ukraine’s long and short-term counterparty credit ratings from ‘SD/SD’ to ‘CCC+/C’ following the completion of the bank’s distressed debt exchange for three loan participation note issues on August 5. The outlook on the ratings is negative. Alfa Bank’s national scale rating was also raised, from ‘SD’, to ‘uaB.’

Concorde Capital: The move by the agency was expected by us as the fact that Alfa Bank swapped the Eurobonds definitely bodes well for the bank. We estimate that a fair YTM for the 2012 notes should be around 40%, corresponding to a price of ~68. We recommend buying into Alfa’s new Eurobonds below this level.

Concorde Capital is a full service investment bank operating on the Ukrainian, Russian and CIS markets. In 2007 Concorde Capital’s analytical team was recognized as the Top Team covering Ukraine by Thomson Extel's Pan European Survey. Senior Analyst Alexander Paraschiy was recognized as the Leading Pan-European Investment Analyst – European Emerging Markets. Concorde Capital is a leader when it comes to private placements and M&A deals. Concorde Capital’s sale of a stake in Electron Bank to Volksbank International AG was named the Best Ukrainian M&A deal of the year 2007 by the Adam Smith Institute.