The Standard and Poor's Ratings Services has raised its long-term corporate credit rating on Pakistan-based wireless service provider, Pakistan Mobile Communications Ltd (Mobilink) to 'B-' from 'CCC+'. Rashid Khan, President & CEO Mobilink said, "despite a very challenging operating environment credit fundamentals of Mobilink have been broadly intact and it has managed to retain trust of international and local investors.
The upgrade in rating reflects an improvement on the operating environment that was weighing negatively on our rating previously. It is heartening to see the positive outlook on Pakistan's macroeconomic situation as we cannot isolate ourselves from the economic environment we operate in. We are also grateful to our parent company Orascom Telecom Holding for their continued financial support that has helped us achieve this improvement in our ratings."
Competing in an aggressive market, Mobilink continues to maintain its leadership position and has added the most number of subscribers in July 2009 as compared to other operators. " "We raised the rating on Mobilink to reflect our opinion of the improvement in its funding profile and Pakistan's macroeconomic situation," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Yasmin Wirjawan. This follows Standard & Poor's decision to raise the long-term sovereign credit ratings on Pakistan (B-/Stable/C).-PR