AKIPRESS.COM - Moody's Investors Service has downgraded to B1 from Ba3 the corporate family rating (CFR) of JSC NC Kazakhstan Engineering (KE), a state-controlled Kazakhstan defence company on April 26, the service said.

Moody's has also downgraded the company's probability of default rating (PDR) to B1-PD from Ba3-PD, and the rating of its three-year $200 million notes due 2016 to B1 (LGD4) from Ba3 (LGD4). The outlook on all the ratings is negative.

Concurrently, Moody's placed under review direction uncertain KE's Baa3.kz national scale rating (NSR). The NSR is being placed under review direction uncertain pending a potential revision of the Kazakhstan's NSR map.

This action factors in the following key drivers:

-- state-owned KE's strong link with the recently-downgraded Kazakhstan government

-- the company's reliance on the government for financial support

-- its very weak standalone credit quality, high refinancing risk

The action concludes the rating review initiated by Moody's on 10 March 2016 and follows the downgrade of Kazakhstan's government bond rating a negative outlook on 22 April 2016.