The Director of Corporate Ratings at Standard and Poor’s (S&P) international rating agency Alexander Griaznov stated today that a number of Armenian companies are interested in being rated by S&P.

Alexander Griaznov made this statement in Yerevan, at “S&P Global Ratings: New Opportunities for Growth” seminar jointly organized by the Central Bank of Armenia and HSBC Bank Armenia.

According to S&P representative, their potential clients are banks and other financial institutions at this moment, as experience shows that these organizations are the first to apply for rating.

Alexander Griaznov stated that although they don’t work on Armenian market, they follow it, and respective negotiations are underway.

“Armenian market is underdeveloped from investors’ point of view, but has potential for growth,” Alexander Griaznov stressed.

Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Armenia Nerses Yeritsyan noted that ratings from large agencies have a significant meaning in ensuring access to global finances for Armenian companies.

“Rating is necessary for all the companies that strive to expand and enter global capital markets,” he observed.

According to Nerses Yeritsyan, ratings allow to receive unsecured foreign finances from institutional investors, whose “capital is measured in trillions of dollars”.

Moreover, ratings are important for directing internal savings to investments, which, according to Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank, are on a low level at this stage of development of Armenia.

“At present, Armenia has received sovereign credit ratings from two international agencies, Moody’s and Fitch. We also consider the possibility of getting rating from S&P in the future,” Nerses Yeritsyan stated.