Credit Ratings

Acuité Ratings & Research Limited is a full service credit rating agency with registration from SEBI and the accreditation from RBI (as an External Credit Assessment Institution under Basel II or New Capital Adequacy Framework) received in 2011 and 2012, respectively. Acuité assigned its first bond rating in 2012 and has a track record of over 5 years in rating the entire range of debt instruments including NCDs, Commercial Paper and Bank Loan Ratings (BLR). We reached the milestone of 5,000 Bond/NCD/bank loan ratings in 2017.

Today, Acuité is strongly established in the domestic ratings market with a significant market share in bank loan ratings. Our ratings are well accepted by bankers and investors in debt capital markets and today cover a wide cross section of the economy. We have presence in both the corporate and the financial sector. In corporate sector, we have outstanding ratings on SMEs as also on large companies with debt in excess of Rs. 5,000 Cr. This unique position of rating SMEs allows us to draw unique insights about developments in the economy and use the same to provide sharper opinion and insights on large credits.

In financial sector, we have outstanding ratings on a significant number of NBFCs/HFCs and state financial institutions. In 2017-18, we have initiated ratings on banks and recently on urban local bodies (Municipal Corporations). Acuité also has an increasing presence in the government sector with ratings outstanding on several central and state PSUS.

Acuité’s ratings are based on the principle of probability of default (PD) and are assigned in the standardized 20-point rating scale of AAA-D as approved by both SEBI and RBI.
Our ratings have helped many borrowers to access funds from the banks and their investors at competitive rates. We believe that the ratings from Acuité will facilitate proper pricing for debt instruments and bank loans going forward.

Acuité currently has a 50-member analytical team with professional qualifications and experience of rating a large number of corporates and financial sector players across varied sizes. They are led by the senior leadership team of Acuité which has extensive experience in credit ratings and banking. Acuité also has set up a Centre of Excellence which is responsible for developing ratings criteria, strengthening internal processes, improving ratings quality and ensuring compliance with the existing regulations.