We informed through a Press Release, that was made on 30th May 2018 to all the media houses and stakeholders. To read the Press Release click here.

The decision to effect a change in the name of the Company was taken after receiving extensive formal and informal feedback from bankers, investors, market intermediaries and media. Our various stakeholders felt that change of name was necessary in order to do away with an impression that the Company only rates SMEs. Therefore, SMERA changed its name to Acuité to re-position the Company as a full-service Credit Rating Agency with capabilities far beyond SME ratings. Now, Acuité not only has the necessary SEBI registration and RBI accreditation to rate Bonds, NCDs, Bank Loans, FDs and CPs, but its portfolio also includes a significant number of large and mid-size borrowers. The ‘SMERA’ brand shall continue to be used by the Company for its SME Ratings division (which contributes less than 50% of the Company's current turnover) which will operate as a sub division of Acuité Ratings & Research Limited.

Yes, all ratings live / outstanding as on date (DDMMYYYY) or assigned from today will have the prefix ‘ACUITE’ instead of ‘SMERA’. Thus, a rating that would previously be denotedas ‘SMERA BBB+ (Outlook: Stable) / SMERA A1+’ would now be denoted as "ACUITE BBB+ (Outlook: Stable) / ACUITE A1+”. It may be noted that only the prefix of the rating will change. There would not be any change in the ratings or the rating definitions. ‘ACUITE BBB+’ will mean exactly the same degree of risk or safety as 'SMERA BBB+'.

In the normal course, we will not issue new rating letters to the existing clients. All banks will honour the existing rating letters, since this is only a change in the name of the credit rating agency. However, if requested we shall be happy to send a revised rating letter on the letterhead of Acuité Ratings & Research Limited carrying the rating with the prefix 'ACUITE'.

No, the Press Releases / Rating Rationales issued in the past will not be revised. They will continue to appear on our website with the old rating symbol. These documents are adobe acrobat (pdf) documents and no change can be made once uploaded on the website. However, all new Press Releases / Rating Rationales for ratings, freshly assigned or reviewed, will carry the new branding and symbol.

No, this change of name of the Company is not associated with any change in the shareholding pattern / ownership / promoter group. Acuité Ratings & Research Limited continues to be a closely held Public Limited company, wherein 56.8% of shareholding is held by public sector banks and balance by D&B India, StanChart and ICICI Bank. We have no plans to do an IPO in near future. The change in name does not affect the SEBI registration and RBI accreditation of the Company.

Yes, we will be happy to take note of your concerns, queries, suggestions and ideas 24x7 via WhatsApp / SMS on +91 99698 98000 or email: info@acuite.in

You may share the details of your bankers with our helpdesk in order to enable us to take up the issue with the bank and explain / create awareness. Since this is only a change of name, we expect no major hurdles in creating awareness amongst the bankers.

The legal name of the company as registered with MCA is Acuite Ratings & Research Limited. Also the website address,url is Acuite.in. This is so because MCA and website domain registrations dont allow special characters.

However, in our communications and branding guidelines we use Acuité which has the 'acute e' character to stylise the depiction of the company name and also to convey the right pronunciation (similar to Nestlé).

Customers can write cheques or address us in letters as Acuité or Acuite. Both would be considered right and valid.

To view Acuité’s Incorporation Certificate, please click here.