Business
S&P Global Ratings of Freedom Holding Corp. Subsidiaries Downgraded in Wake of Russia-Ukraine Conflict
ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN / ACCESSWIRE / March 17, 2022 / Freedom Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:FRHC) (the "Company," "we" or "our") today announced that S&P Global Ratings
About this update from Freedom Holding Corp.
[{"type":"text","content":"ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN / ACCESSWIRE / March 17, 2022 / Freedom Holding Corp. (NASDAQ:FRHC) (the \"Company,\" \"we\" or \"our\") today announced that S&P Global Ratings (\"S&P\") has lowered its long-term issuer credit ratings on Company subsidiaries Freedom Finance JSC, Bank Freedom Finance Kazakhstan, JSC, Freedom Finance Global, PLC, and Freedom Finance Europe Ltd. to \"B-\" from \"B\" and lowered the rating of Investment Company Freedom Finance, LLC to \"CCC-\" from \"B\". All credit ratings remain on CreditWatch with negative implications. S&P indicated it lowered the rating on Investment Company Freedom Finance to reflect its view that our Russian brokerage subsidiary will be severely affected by the steep repricing and disruption in Russia's capital markets and its assumption that Investment Company Freedom Finance would likely need an unexpected favorable change in operating conditions to continue meeting its obligations. S&P downgraded our other subsidiaries to reflect expected weaker business prospects for the Company as a whole but acknowledged that these subsidiaries are likely to be less affected. S&P considers it unlikely there would be spillover from Investment Company Freedom Finance to our other entities and the Company's exposure to Russian securities, which have experienced sharp repricing, is concentrated in our Russian brokerage subsidiary. S&P noted, that a significant currency translation loss, remains a notable risk for the Company as sharp depreciation in the Russian ruble and depreciation in the Kazakhstani tenge is likely to significantly impair group earnings, at least in the short term.\"The lowering of the credit ratings of the Company's subsidiaries is a foreseeable byproduct of the military incursion into Ukraine and the consequent international sanctions, with the limited downgrading of our non-Russian subsidiaries as evidence of a more positive outlook for our non-Russian regional business prospects,\" commented Timur Turlov, Company CEO. Turlov continued, \"as we previously noted, we have ceased our operations in Ukraine and are making concerted efforts to secure the well-being of all of our Ukrainian employees. Although the full impact of the sanctions is not yet evident, our operations in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, the EU and the U.S. are continuing, our current liquidity position remains...