OREANDA-NEWS. September 15, 2011. Standard & Poor's Governance Services said that it had affirmed and immediately withdrawn its 'GAMMA-5+' Governance, Accountability, Management Metrics, and Analysis score assigned to Kazakhtelecom (JSC), the largest telecommunications operator in Kazakhstan, reported the press-centre of KASE.

Kazakhtelecom's overall GAMMA score is the result of four component scores ranging from a low of 1 to a high of 10: Shareholder influence: '5+'  (no change), Shareholder rights: '6' (raised from '5+'), Transparency, audit, and enterprise risk management: '6' (no change).

Kazakhtelecom continued to develop its corporate governance procedures in 2011. The board played an active role in the decision-making process and we believe the newly created strategy committee has become an effective platform for strategic discussions, - said Standard & Poor's governance analyst Ekaterina Marushkevich.

Noting some weaknesses, Standard & Poor's Governance Services admit a fairly high level of Kazakhtelecom's transparency and names the following strengths of corporate governance practices: most directors on Kazakhtelecom's board areeither independent or represent the interests of minority shareholders, the board-level audit and remuneration committees are active and consist only of independent members, annual financials according to International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) were available on time, accordingly, dividends were paid out earlier than in previous years.

The withdrawal of the GAMMA score on Kazakhtelecom is made at Standard & Poor's  initiative. It reflects our decision to cease providing stand-alone governance scores, while continuing to incorporate governance analysis in our global and local scale credit ratings.

The full version of the press-release is available on Standard & Poor's website
http://www.standardandpoors.com/.