OREANDA-NEWS. July 09, 2014. Polyus Gold International Limited (LSE - PGIL, OTC (US) - PLZLY, “PGIL”, “Polyus Gold” or the “Company”), the largest gold producer in Russia, notes Fitch Rating’s recent review which confirmed its ‘BBB-’ Long-term Issuer Default Rating on Polyus Gold and Stable outlook. Short-term Issuer Default Rating has been affirmed at ‘F3‘.

According to Fitch, the affirmation of the rating reflects the Company’s resilient financial performance despite a weak market environment as well as its prudent management approach to ensure stable production growth while protecting its credit profile.

In its review, Fitch Ratings highlights the following grounds for its decision:

Polyus Gold’s strong reserve base of 83.12 million ounces of gold which is currently the third-largest among global gold producers with the above-average gold grade of 2.0 g/t compared with the industry’s average of 1.5 g/t.

The Company’s competitive cost position with total cash costs of USD 707 per ounce in 2013 which makes Polyus Gold one of the world’s most efficient gold producers and firmly places it in the second quartile of the global total cash costs curve.

The Company’s strong track record in project execution including the launch of the Blagodatnoye, Titimukhta and Verninskoye mines over the past few years.

Prudent approach to the development of the Natalka project including the management’s decision to postpone launch of the mine to allow for additional technical optimisations and to avoid significant deterioration in leverage.

The Company’s focus on core assets in Russia after sale of the Company’s operations in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

Strong corporate governance with the majority independent Board.

The Company’s strong liquidity position of USD 0.8 billion of cash and close to USD 0.3 billion of undrawn committed bank facilities at end 2013, compared with only USD 0.3 billion of short-term borrowings.

Polyus Gold’s robust profitability with 38.8% EBITDA margin in 2013 despite a challenging market environment.

Polyus Gold views the Fitch’s decision as confirmation of the Company’s financial stability amid sustained gold price volatility. The Company continues to focus on improving its cash flows, implementation of operational efficiencies and remains committed to a rigorous financial discipline.