Almaty, 10 November. Fitch Ratings has raised Kcell’s long-term credit rating from BB+ to BBB− with a stable outlook: for the first time since the rating was assigned the company has reached investment grade on Fitch’s scale, Kcell said in a release on the KASE exchange on 9 November.
The rating scale splits in two. BB+ is the top step of the speculative category and BBB− the bottom step of the investment category: such securities may be bought by conservative investors who cannot take risks. Fitch names as the main reason for the upgrade a stronger assessment of support from the parent company Kazakhtelecom, part of the Samruk-Kazyna group: Kcell provides more than 40% of the group’s consolidated revenue, and the agency sees the mobile segment as one of the main sources of growth. The agency also takes into account Kazakhtelecom’s guarantees on Kcell’s debts. So, by Fitch’s assessment, the link between the two companies is strong enough to put Kcell’s rating on the same level as the parent group’s, BBB−.
Other factors named in the release include a share of more than 30% of the mobile market by revenue and a gain of 1.5 percentage points in subscriber market share in 2025. The subscriber base rose 11% in the first half of 2026 against a year earlier, and 5G population coverage reached 64%, more than 10 percentage points higher than at the end of 2025. Fitch expects net debt to EBITDA of about 1.6 for 2026, and free cash flow could turn positive from 2028: the peak of the investment cycle, by the agency’s assessment, has passed.
Fitch’s sovereign rating for Kazakhstan is BBB, and Kcell’s rating sits one step below it; in September 2026, as the Telegram channel Finmentor wrote, Moody’s also gave the company an investment rating of Baa3. Kcell’s ratings from both major international agencies are now investment grade. What this gives in practice the release does not say; as a general rule, a higher rating usually makes borrowing cheaper and widens the circle of bond buyers.
What it means: A subsidiary’s rating is now determined not only by its own figures but by the strength of its link with a state group: Fitch tied Kcell’s level directly to Kazakhtelecom’s. The operator’s rating rose together with the assessment of support.
Who benefits: Kcell itself and the Kazakhtelecom group, since, as a general rule, an investment rating makes borrowing easier; the company does not name a timetable for new bond issues.
Background: Fitch Ratings is one of the three largest international rating agencies; the next day the Agency for Regulation and Development of the Financial Market approved a list of international agencies that includes Fitch.
