Strong ongoing and potential extraordinary support from Republic of Kazakhstan Monopoly position in a stable and low-operating-risk electricity transmission business Generally supportive cost-cover tariff setting regime Aggressive financial policy Large grid investment program involving significant construction risk High exposure to foreign currency and floating interest risk Kazakhstan's relatively weak power sector characteristics Standard&Poor's Ratings Services applies a top-down rating approach to Kazakhstan Electricity Grid Operating Co. (JSC) (KEGOC), Kazakhstan's state-owned transmission grid operator, notching down two notches below the local currency rating on the Republic of Kazakhstan (foreign currency BBB-/Negative/A-3, local currency BBB/Negative/A-3; Kazakhstan national scale 'kzAAA'). This reflects KEGOC's strategically important status to the Kazakh government as a provider of core infrastructure services. We estimate KEGOC's stand-alone
