The credit rating has also been upgraded for the bonds of OJSC "LuAZ" in the amount of 130 million hryvnias with a circulation period of 5 years.
The credit rating upgrade was facilitated by the growth of production activity indicators of the Lutsk Automobile Plant based on the results of 2005, as well as the improvement of the company's financial performance results.
On March 20, the Lutsk Automobile Plant, which is part of the "Bohdan" Corporation, made its third interest payment on the bonds. The amount paid was 4 million 537 thousand hryvnias. In total, LuAZ paid 12 million 913 thousand hryvnias in interest on the bonds during September 2005 – March 2006.
Among the buyers of the bonds are domestic and foreign banks and non-banking financial institutions. The bonds of OJSC "Lutsk Automobile Plant" are included in the listing of the PFTS trading system. In May 2005, the independent rating agency "Credit Rating" assigned the LuAZ bonds and the enterprise itself a rating of the uaBBB category. In October 2005, the agency confirmed the long-term credit rating of the bonds and the enterprise.
Based on the results of 2005, the Lutsk Automobile Plant, which is part of the "Bohdan" Corporation, increased passenger car production by 39.08% to 30,637 units (22,029 units in 2004). In 2005, the enterprise's net profit grew 3.3 times compared to the results of 2004 and amounted to 96.4 million hryvnias.