The Russian steelmaker Novolipetsk Steel (NLMK) has announced that the international ratings agency Moody's Investors Service has raised its outlook for the Ba1 corporate family rating and the Aa1.ru national scale rating of NLMK from "negative" to "stable".
Accordingly, the change of Moody's outlook to "stable" reflects NLMK's ability to show a resilient financial and operating performance through 2008 and H1 2009. Moody's decision has confirmed the company's high credit quality and indicates that the company continues to have the lowest level of debt and leverage among peers.
Moody's notes that, despite the challenging global operating environment for steel producers, NLMK's results demonstrate the company's ability to improve profitability, its sound liquidity profile, and its conservative financial metrics.