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approximately $40mn. Ferrexpo’s dividend policy is to pay US cents 6.6 per share of sustainable yearly dividends and, if appropriate, US cents 6.6 per share of special dividends per year. Dmytro Khoroshun at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital believes that this is a welcome development because Ferrexpo is currently rich in cash for which it seems to have no good uses for. "The company is very conservative with its capital investments, although some acceleration occurred recently, and even considers it appropriate to invest tens of millions per year in storing lean ore to be used years later. Amid such cash usages, increasing payouts to shareholders makes sense," he added in a note on December 6.
8.4 International ratings
Moody's Investors Service upgraded its Ukrainian sovereign bond ratings to Caa1 from Caa2, the agency reported on Dec. 21. The three drivers for the rating upgrade were: 1) decreased risk of sovereign default as a consequence of the new stand-by agreement with the IMF, which also increases the likelihood of the country to tap debt markets; 2) an incremental improvement in fighting corruption, which the agency describes as “the most credit-negative institutional weaknesses”; and 3) "an incremental improvement” in the country’s resilience to conflict with Russia. Moody’s also highlighted that the recent escalation near the Kerch Strait “is likely to have a minimal impact on Ukraine's already high geopolitical risks.” Further escalation there is unlikely, Moody’s analysts said.
59 UKRAINE Country Report February 2019 www.intellinews.com