Transformation plays an important role in increasing the sustainability and efficiency of the country’s economy. The Decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated 14 July 2022 ‘On measures to increase uranium mining, processing and transformation of «Navoiuran» State Enterprise in 2022-2030’ defines the stages and tasks of transformation of «Navoiuran» State Enterprise, the implementation of which will accelerate the implementation of global projects and programs based on the strategic priorities of the enterprise. These projects will improve the enterprise’s operations, ensure active work of all structural divisions and create a full-fledged system of modern corporate governance.
The primary purpose of the company’s transformation is to turn it into a competitive company through the phased introduction of digital technologies and platform solutions in order to reduce the cost of production, improve operational efficiency and ensure stable operation. Moreover, at the “Navoiyuran” State Enterprise, work is underway to create a modern corporate governance system, introduce advanced world technologies and provide competitive personnel. The decree of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan is a «road map» for specialists and partners of the enterprise in this area.
Credit rating is of great importance for any company in attracting foreign investments and increasing the confidence of international partners. This rating is an indicator that allows assessing the level of reliability of investments in the company. It takes into account not only the current financial position of the organization, its capital and debt volumes, but also its entire previous history. The main objective is to provide potential investors with objective information. Give it in other words, credit rating is a kind of company image. In this project, obtaining international credit ratings by “Navoiuran” SE is of particular importance. As a result of the transformation of the company, two reputable international credit rating agencies confirmed the first international credit rating of SE “Navoiuran” at the level of the sovereign credit rating of the Republic of Uzbekistan, i.e., at the level of ‘BB-/Stable’. In particular, Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings set the long-term issuer default rating (LTIDR) of SE “Navoiuran” at ‘BB-/Stable’ and the standalone credit profile (SCP) at ‘bb-’, which indicates that the enterprise has achieved the second place among large industrial state-owned enterprises in the territory of the Republic of Uzbekistan. To this end, for the first time Navoiuran received a positive audit opinion from the international audit organisation Deloitte on the financial statements for 2022-2023, prepared in accordance with the requirements of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). Implementation of IFRS allowed to estimate the value of Navoiuran’s assets at 9.8 trillion UZS and net asset value at 7.9 trillion UZS. Therefore, the international rating agency Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings and international audit organisation Deloitte confirmed Navoiuran’s EBITDA for 2023 in the amount of 370 million USD (margin – 65.3 per cent) with forecasts for 2024 in the amount of 660 million USD (margin – 80 per cent).
Particularly, Standard & Poor’s Global Ratings and other international rating agencies confirmed Navoiuran’s position among the world’s 5 largest uranium producers, as well as its low production costs compared to reputable foreign uranium producers.
In order to obtain an international credit rating for the company, SRK Consulting completed the assessment of Navoiuran’s existing reserves in accordance with JORC standards for 17 important deposits with the balance sheet of the company and provided a report on the assessment of uranium reserves at the deposits in the amount of 71,000 tones.
ESG implementation is the key to successful operations.
The company continues to actively implement the principles of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG – Environmental, Social and Governance). In particular, in the process of implementation of ESG-principles during 2023-2024, the requirements of international standards ISO 9001:2015 ‘Quality Management’, ISO 14001:2015 ‘Environmental Management’, ISO 45001:2018 ‘Occupational Health and Safety’, ISO 27001:2022 ‘Information Security’ and ISO 50001:2019 ‘Energy Management’ were implemented. In 2023, certification assessment of “Navoiuran” SE was carried out and certificates of compliance with the above standards were obtained based on the results of audits conducted by international experts and auditors of the certification body ‘CERT International’. Moreover, in 2024, the first stage of two-stage surveillance-audit on standards of quality management system ISO 9001, environmental management ISO 14001 and occupational health and safety ISO 45001 was successfully conducted.
For an enterprise, one of the main activities of which is the export of natural uranium products, the availability of international certificates plays a key role in ensuring the demand for the products on the world market. They help to increase the attractiveness of the enterprise and ensure trust.
At the same time, the international audit company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was involved in the process of implementing ESG principles, with the help of which an ESG diagnostic analysis was carried out, sustainability reports for 2022-2024 published in 3 languages were prepared, an ESG diagnostic analysis was carried out and a roadmap for obtaining an ESG rating for the enterprise was developed.
One of the important requirements for obtaining ESG rating is the adaptation of the corporate website to the requirements of ESG criteria. A number of works were carried out in this direction, and for the first time the company’s website in English (en.navoiyuran.uz) was launched, realized taking into account the ESG requirements.
In accordance with the implementation of the above tasks, negotiations with authoritative rating agencies of the world (MSCI, CDP, Sustainable Fitch) on obtaining ESG rating were held. As of this date, a contract has been signed with the international rating agency Sustainable Fitch, and practical work is being carried out jointly with specialists of the analytical department.
Hasan KHAIDAROV, Deputy CEO for Transformation and Digitalisation of the SE “Navoiyuran”
01/09/2021 
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