MOSCOW, July 3 (RIA Novosti) - Standard & Poor's on Tuesday upgraded the outlook for Russia's state-controlled crude producer Rosneft [RTS: ROSN] to positive over the company's recent acquisitions and confirmed its corporate long-term credit rating at BB+.
The international rating agency said it had upgraded Rosneft's outlook after the crude producer acquired oil producing and refining assets in the Volga area, Eastern Siberia and other regions at auctions for the asset sale of now bankrupt oil company Yukos.
Standard & Poor's said these acquisitions had considerably strengthened Rosneft's business.
Yukos, once Russia's largest oil company, was declared bankrupt August 1, 2006, after three years of litigation with tax authorities over tax arrears. Its founder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is serving an eight-year prison sentence in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion.
