OREANDA-NEWS. National Rating Agency has placed its credit rating on Whale Finance LLC's series 01 bonds (Reg. No. 4-01-36435-R, ISIN code: RU000A0JUHV4) on its Watchlist with negative implications. The bonds were assigned NRA's first-time national scale credit rating of 'AA-' on Mar. 31, 2014. The rating was subsequently affirmed. The latest rating update (affirmation wit a negative outlook) was on Sep. 16, 2015.

The credit rating of Whale Finance LLC's series 01 bonds will be under scrutiny from the time of its Watchlist placement. A Watchlist placement is not equivalent to the rating suspension, but indicates that in the near term the Rating Agency may take a rating action, including the rating affirmation or downgrade by one or more notches, the outlook revision, as well as the rating suspension or withdrawal.

The rating downgrade reflects NRA's decision to stop factoring in the credit enhancement in the form of support from one of the issuer's strategic partners. The Negative rating outlook reflects the increasing risks related to the issuer's investments, debt burden and growth strategy in the content of adverse market conditions at a time when no meaningful external support is available.