Moody's Investors Service has confirmed at Caa1 the corporate family ratings (CFR) and Caa1-PD the probability of default ratings (PDR) of five companies operating in Ukraine, namely: Metinvest B.V. (the Netherlands), Fintest Trading Co Limited (Donetsksteel, Cyprus), MHP S.A. (Luxemburg), Lemtrans LLC (Donetsk) and Ferrexpo Plc (Britain), reads a press release of Moody's.

According to the press release, Outlook is Negative.

The affected companies' business profiles and financial metrics are strong for a Caa1 rating. However, their ratings are constrained by that of the sovereign, because the companies are exposed to Ukraine's political, legal, fiscal and regulatory environment, given that most or all of their assets are located within the country, Moody's said.

As reported, at the end of last week Moody's Investors Service has downgraded Ukraine's government bond rating to Caa2 from Caa1 and assigned a negative outlook.

The decision to downgrade Ukraine's sovereign rating was driven by the escalation of social and political tensions in the country, and the associated risk of a severe administrative crisis and/or prolonged political uncertainty.

On January 28, Standard & Poor's lowered Ukraine's sovereign rating to 'CCC+' from 'B-', changing also its outlook to 'negative' from 'stable'.

"In our view, the political instability in Ukraine has significantly escalated. We now assess Ukraine under our criteria as exhibiting characteristics of a "distressed civil society with weakened political institutions," diminishing the government's capacity to maintain timely debt service," reads the statement.

At the same time, S&P affirmed the long- and short-term local currency sovereign credit ratings at 'B-/B' and the outlook is negative.