PhosAgro gets investment-grade rating from Fitch

PJSC PHOSAGRO - PhosAgro gets investment-grade rating from Fitch

PR Newswire

London, February 9

PhosAgro receives third investment-grade credit rating from Fitch

Moscow – PhosAgro ("PhosAgro" or "the Company") (Moscow Exchange, LSE: PHOR), one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers, announces that Fitch Ratings has raised the Company’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating (IDR) from BB+ to investment-grade BBB– with a Stable outlook.

In its announcement of the rating action Fitch Ratings cites PhosAgro's improving business profile, with an expansion of both nitrogen and phosphate fertiliser output by over 50% since 2012. This expansion has been achieved through efficient capex and an extensive cost-control programme. The announcement also says that PhosAgro has also shown its resilience to the current market trough in fertiliser prices and has a coherent track record on dividends.

PhosAgro CEO Andrey Guryev said: “Today we have been assigned an investment-grade rating by Fitch, and almost two weeks ago Moody’s also upgraded our ratings. We are pleased that leading international ratings agencies have appreciated our efforts to manage costs and increase our operational efficiency, and our rational approach to capital investments.”

The Fitch Ratings press release announcing this rating action is available here: https://www.fitchratings.com/site/pr/10020054

As a result, PhosAgro now has investment-grade credit ratings from three ratings agencies:

Notes to Editors

PhosAgro (www.phosagro.ru) is one of the world’s leading vertically integrated phosphate-based fertilizer producers in terms of production volumes of phosphate-based fertilizers and high-grade phosphate rock with a P2O5 content of not less than 39% (according to IFA, Fertecon and CRU).

The Company is the largest phosphate-based fertilizer producer in Europe, the largest producer of high-grade phosphate rock (with a P2O5 content of not less than 37%) worldwide and the third largest MAP/DAP producer in the world (excluding China), according to IFA. PhosAgro is also one of the leading producers of feed phosphates (MCP) in Europe, and the only producer in Russia. PhosAgro is Russia’s only producer of nepheline concentrate.

PhosAgro’s main products include phosphate rock, 39 grades of fertilizers, feed phosphates, ammonia, and sodium tripolyphosphate, which are used by customers in 100 countries spanning all of the world’s inhabited continents. The Company’s priority markets outside of Russia and the CIS are Latin America, Europe and Asia.

PhosAgro’s shares are traded on the Moscow Exchange, and global depositary receipts (“GDRs”) for shares trade on the London Stock Exchange (under the ticker PHOR). Since 1 June 2016, the Company’s GDRs have been included in the MSCI Russia and MSCI Emerging Markets indexes.