OREANDA-NEWS.  March 09, 2012. Standard & Poor's Ratings Services said that it had raised its long-term issuer credit rating on Kazakh Agrarian Credit Corp. (KACC) to 'BB+' from 'BB' and affirmed the 'B' short-term issuer credit rating. The outlook is stable. We also raised the Kazakhstan national scale rating to 'kzAA-' from 'kzA+', reported the press-centre of KASE.

The 'BB+' long-term rating on KACC reflects its stand-alone credit profile (SACP), which we assess at 'b+', along with our opinion of a "high" likelihood that KACC would receive timely and sufficient extraordinary support from the government of the Republic of Kazakhstan (BBB+/Stable/A-2; Kazakhstan national scale 'kzAAA'), its 100% owner. The 'b+' SACP reflects KACC's "moderate" business position, "very strong" capital and earnings, "moderate" risk position, "below-average" funding, and "moderate" liquidity, as our criteria define these terms.

In accordance with our criteria for government-related entities, our opinion of a "high" likelihood of extraordinary government support for KACC is based on our view of the company's "important" role for and "very strong" link with the Kazakh government.

As a result, our rating on KACC is three notches higher than its SACP, which we assess at 'b+'.

We use our bank criteria to assess KACC's SACP.

The stable outlook reflects our expectation of continued strong ongoing government support to KACC, resulting in maintenance of its "very strong" capitalization levels and "moderate" liquidity. It also reflects our assessment that KACC can continue to expect a "high" likelihood of timely and sufficient extraordinary government support.

A stronger probability of extraordinary support might lead to positive rating actions on KACC.

Negative rating actions on the sovereign, or signs of a lower probability of extraordinary government support, might result in negative rating actions on KACC. Deterioration of the stand-alone credit profile, with sharply weaker capitalization or growing problem assets in KACC's portfolio, might also result in negative rating actions, although we do not think it is likely.