MOSCOW (S&P Global Ratings) — S&P Global Ratings said Wednesday that it has raised its long-term Kazakhstan national scale rating on DAMU Entrepreneurship Development Fund to “kzAA+” from “kzAA-”. They had placed the rating under criteria observation (UCO) after the revision of our criteria on national scale ratings and subsequent recalibration of the mapping table for Kazakhstan. At the same time, S&P have removed the UCO designation from this national scale rating.

DAMU Entrepreneurship Development Fund Joint Stock Company is a principal investment arm of Joint-stock Company National Management Holding Baiterek. It seeks to invest in Small and Medium Enterprises in Kazakhstan. DAMU Entrepreneurship Development Fund Joint Stock Company was founded on August 18, 1997 and is based in Almaty, Kazakhstan.

The rating action follows the recent publication of S&P’s revised criteria article “Methodology For National And Regional Scale Credit Ratings” and the related guidance, “S&P Global Ratings’ National And Regional Scale Mapping Specifications”, on June 25, 2018. The rating change is purely a result of the revisions to the criteria and mapping table, which are intended to create the most appropriate distinction among ratings on the national scale, and do not represent a change in S&P’s view of the credit quality of the issuer.

The guidance document includes an updated mapping table that applies to all entities, issues, and programs rated on the Kazakhstan national scale. Such ratings carry the prefix kz. As explained in S&P’s criteria, to determine a national scale credit rating, they use criteria that are identical to, or consistent with, S&P’s global rating scale criteria. S&P typically first determine their view of creditworthiness on the global scale and then use the applicable mapping table, which shows the relationship between global and national scales, to determine a national scale credit rating.

National scale ratings express S&P’s opinion of the creditworthiness of an issuer or a debt instrument relative to other issuers and issues in a given country. The purpose of national scale ratings is to provide a rank ordering of credit risk within the country.