It is declared in 2015 Report of Fitch Ratings, which is credit rating institution, that Metropolitan Municipality has kept its it credit note which it has increased 9 steps forward since 2008.

According to 2015 report of Fitch and the notes verified, İzmir Metropolitan Municipality has increased its credit note 9 steps in terms of long-term domestic and foreign currency and it has increased domestic long-term credit note 6 steps since 2008. Together with the last declaration, Metropolitan Municipality has kept its place. . Fitch Ratings, has verified credit note of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality, domestic long-term note of which is “AA+(tur)”, domestic and foreign currency long-term credit note of which is  “BBB-”

Mayor is Proud

Aziz Kocaoğlu, who is İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor, emphasized that credit notes of the Municipality has been increased to the level of which is “Investment can be made” by the most important credit rating institutions and expressed his satisfaction related to verification of the credit notes by Fitch Ratings once more. Mayor Kocaoğlu said that: “As a result of financial policies we have followed, we paid off our debt to Secretariat of Treasury, we have got positive debt indicators,  we have got a strong position among the municipalities, and we have provided cheap and long-term finances aimed at increasing competitive power in the international markets. These have enabled us to obtain this result in an environment where credit notes of a number of countries have been decreased. Economy experts states “Credit rating Institutions are very cautious when they announce their credit notes,  they even place the smallest problems into their reports from this point of view, the importance of the notes we have got increases more. 8. Fitch verification is the result of resolute application of our policies we have followed for the last 11 years, which are prudent, realist, grounded, which are not fanciful.” İzmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor added that they expect that verification of credit not will ease their access to cheap and long-term finance more.

Fitch has stated that İzmir Metropolitan Municipality has associated its high capital need with constant expenditure discipline and realization of about 100% budget and that this was effective in verification of the credit notes.  It was emphasized in the report that İzmir Metropolitan Municipality has a strong cash accumulation which is equal to 16% of its activity incomes in 2014 and this reserve may increase more in the next period.

It was stated in the report that İzmir Metropolitan Municipality is expected to maintain its strong activity margins between 55 and 60 % in the period of  2015-2017 and that capital investment expenditures shall be made to the cities which have been newly connected according to the Law No: 6360 but and any deformation in the capital investments is not expected  thanks to previous financial performance in the financial planning of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality,  together with  “the capacity of self-financing” which is strong together with financial  successful financial management strategy.

“Positive Course” expectation for the note

In İzmir Report of Fitch was stated that reserves which have been created against currency risk for the large portion of liabilities in foreign Exchange by İzmir Metropolitan Municipality reflects cautious debt management applications.

The other matter attracts attention in the report of Fitch Ratings is  that it strongly expects İzmir to depreciate its direct debt and the rate between direct risk and current balance to remain under 1 % , with the estimated increase in  current balance. In the declaration of Fitch,  the expression that the credit note of İzmir Metropolitan Municipality may follow a positive course together with cautious financial and liquidity planning attracted attention.