OREANDA-NEWS. March 26, 2010. Fitch Ratings assigned RSHB Capital S.A.'s RUB 30 billion issue of 7.5% limited recourse loan participation notes, due 25 March 2013, a final Long-term rating of BBB.
Funds from the placement will be used by Russian Agricultural Bank to further expand financing of the agribusiness sector and related industries.

Russian Agricultural Bank is 100% state-owned bank regulated by the Central Bank of Russia. RusAg is one of the leading financial institutions providing lending support to Russian agribusiness.

RusAg is an agent of the Government of the Russian Federation for providing financial services to agribusiness. It is the only state-owned bank in the Russian Federation exclusively focused on providing services to the agribusiness and rural population, which makes up 27% of the total population. RusAg’s credit policy stipulates that at least 70% of the loan portfolio is devoted to agribusiness.

Today Russian Agricultural Bank’s network of 78 regional branches and over 1500 additional offices covers the whole territory of the Russian Federation and is the second largest regional branch network in the country. RusAg’s local presence provides a significant marketing advantage and access to regional client base.

Russian Agricultural Bank provides banking services nationwide to over one million clients. The Bank's policy is to make the whole range of banking services available to its clients both in urban and rural areas.

The Government of the Russian Federation is represented by officials on RusAg’s Supervisory Board, headed by the First Deputy Prime Minister. The Government has provided RusAg with 12 capital increases to date - the latest of which totaling RUR 45 billion in February 2009 and RUR 31.5 billion in August 2008. Following the February increase, RusAg’s authorized capital amounted to RUR 106.2 billion (USD 3.6 billion) and total capital to RUR 160 billion (ca. USD 5 billion) as of May 01, 2009.

In 2008 RusAg achieved substantial financial results: total assets amounted to USD 24.3 billion, loan portfolio reached USD 15.4 billion. RusAg’s strong operating results give grounds for an optimistic outlook for the coming year.

RusAg’s ratings by Moody’s are: Long-term Baa1, stable; Short-term Prime-2, stable; Financial strength E+, stable; National scale Aaa.ru long-term and RUS-1 short-term. By Fitch: Long-term BBB, stable; Short-term F3; Support 2; Individual D; National Scale AAA(rus) long-term, stable.

Russian Agricultural Bank ranks number four among largest banks of the Russian Federation by assets and capital according to Interfax, and RusAg is number 276 by capital in the World according to the July 2009 issue of “The Banker” magazine.