Shipping heavyweight Sovcomflot is looking to follow the Russian state back into investment grade territory, its chief financial officer says.

Moody’s dialled Russia back up to investment grade in February this year and the state-backed shipowner aims to follow suit in the medium term, Nikolay Kolesnikov tells TradeWinds.

Sovcomflot is currently one notch below investment grade with Moody’s, S&P and Fitch, which Kolesnikov describes as “probably as high as it gets for shipping these days”.