MOSCOW, November 17 (RIA Novosti) - International rating agency Fitch said Thursday it had assigned an "expected national senior unsecured rating" of AAA(rus) to railway monopoly Russian Railways (RZD)'s ruble-denominated bond issues totaling $350 million and $175 million, maturing in 2010 and 2012 respectively.
The agency said it would assign the final rating after receipt of final documentation, in addition to information already received, since it did not consider Trans-Invest's guarantee of the issues as "credit-enhancing".
In August, Fitch assigned RZD senior unsecured and short-term foreign currency ratings of BBB and F3 respectively, and assigned an AAA(rus) rating to the company's three existing bond issues, namely RZD-1, RZD-2 and RZD-3, with volume $140 million each, and maturity in December 2005, 2007, and 2009 respectively.
Fitch said the ratings reflected, in particular, the close connection between the 100% state-owned company and the government, and government representation on RZD's board, which approves its budget.
