AK&M Rating Agency Reaffirms INFINITUM’s А++ Credit Rating

AK&M Rating Agency reaffirmed INFINITUM Asset Services’ A++ national rating with stable outlook.

A ++ means that INFINITUM is included into the class of professional securities market participants with the highest credit level. The risk of untimely fulfillment of obligations is minimal.

The Company’s credit rating is supported by maintaining the leading positions in the market, continuous growth of balance sheet and operating performance, a high stability degree of the specialized depository’s financial profile.

INFINITUM has been confidently holding the position of one of the industry leaders for several years. In 2014, the Company moved to the first place among special depositories by the number of clients served, while maintaining the second position in the value of the property controlled. The annual growth of these indicators made up 3.3% and 5.9% respectively, which is an acceptable level in the midst of high financial market instability.

According to the results of 2014, the size of assets and capital of the specialized depository exceeded 1 billion rubles for the first time in the Company’s history and amounted to 1,200 and 1,099 million rubles (increase of 65% and 60% respectively by 2013). As it follows from the above data, the adequacy of own funds remains at an extremely high level — around 92%.

A significant increase in balance sheet was achieved primarily by the high financial results of the Company — as compared with the previous year, the revenues have increased by 40%, net profit — by more than a half. Profitability indicators have reached historic highs (ROS = 41.5%; ROA = 45.8%).

The Company traditionally does not use borrowed resources, neither long-term nor short-term, to finance its activities. In view of this fact, specialized depository’s liquidity figures are much higher than similar figures of the corporate segment. The current liquidity index of INFINITUM as of 31.12.2014 made up 9.8, absolute liquidity index was 8.2.

In general, high stability of the Company’s financial profile is a key factor for holding the rating position of the specialized depository.

Among the risk factors, the Agency mentions ongoing regulatory changes in the industry and the challenging macroeconomic situation.

In particular, from July 1, 2015, assets of insurance companies whose activities are related to pension insurance, life insurance, mandatory insurance types will be subject to obligatory control by specialized depositories. However, to date, uniform standards and regulations in this segment are not fully aligned, which will require specialized depositories to quickly adapt to new requirements and working conditions, including the aspect new technologies implementation, improvement of business processes, broadening of key personnel’s qualifications.

The high volatility of the financial markets also affects the specialized depository’s performance, as part of its income depends directly on the market value of securities controlled.

INFINITUM is one of the largest specialized depositories in Russia. It provides a full range of specialized depository services, maintains a register of owners of investment units in UIFs, maintains a mortgage collateral register, provides depository and advisory services.

The Company has a license of the Federal Service for Financial Markets to perform specialized depository activities No.22-000-1-00013 dated October 04, 2000 and license to perform depository activities No. 177-07071-000100 dated 31 October 2003 (issued for an indefinite term).

According to PARTAD, as of 30.06.2014 the size of the property controlled by the specialized depository amounted to 1,636,575 million rubles (2nd in Russia).

The rating was assigned based on the Methods of Assigning Depository’s Credit (Reliability) Rating (PAAK & M, 2014.).

Press release has been prepared based on the Report on Assignment of Credit Rating to INFINITUM Asset Services, OJSC.

The credit rating, as well as any information and conclusions provided in this press release should be regarded exclusively as an opinion on the creditworthiness, and not as a recommendation for buying and selling securities or providing bank loans.

AK & M Rating Agency shall not be liable regarding any interpretations, conclusions and consequences associated with the use of the rating results by third parties.

AK & M Rating Agency is accredited by the Ministry of Finance of the Russian Federation (Order No.452 dated September 17, 2010) and is included in the Accredited Rating Agencies Register of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.