On March 18, 2003 ZAO Rating Agency Expert RA announced that it had upgraded the reliability rating of the A1 and A2 corporate bond issues of the Moscow City Telephone Network (MGTS) and was assigning an A rating to the company’s A3 issue.  The upgrade was made following a review on the reliability index of MGTS’s corporate bonds.  As a result of the review the RA agency also decided to upgrade the above issues on the national rating index from B++ to A.

The A rating assigned to MGTS bonds means that the company’s paper is characterized by a high level of reliability.  The risk of full or partial default on the part of the issuer is very low.