OREANDA-NEWS. RusRating has placed the credit rating assigned to ZAO DELTA-HOLDING – "BB" on the international scale and "BBB" on the national scale, in both cases with a stable outlook – on its watch list. This means that the rating could change (either rise or fall) in response to additional information received from the Company or identified in public sources.

The rating is based on the ASPEK group’s many years of successful business activity, operations diversified by industry, and scope for support from the Company’s owners.

Constraining factors include a high debt burden (based on official accounts) and limited transparency with respect to the ASPEK group’s operating cash flows.

ZAO DELTA-HOLDING is the central company in the ASPEK group, whose origins go back to 1992. Historically its business centred on the sale of cars, the construction of residential and non-residential real estate, and forestry. Currently the group includes a construction and real estate development arm and an arm that holds exploratory rights to promising gold fields in Vologda region. ASPEK-Domstroi is a leader in the Izhevsk residential construction market and also operates the Talisman retail and entertainment complex in that city. The Company’s principal beneficiary is M.Y. Pitkevich, whose father is a former Prime Minister of Udmurtia.

The Company’s assets consist almost entirely of stakes in subsidiary firms and its financial condition is therefore determined by the financial condition of those businesses. Based on official accounts the group’s debt burden is judged high. Assets consist mainly of fixed assets (retail and office property), investments in capital construction and claims on prospective gold production. Risk sensitivity is high. Liquidity is sufficient.