Rating Process Flow and Timeline

Steps in Rating Process

Description

1.Receipt of Mandate

Acuité considers a rating mandate as valid only upon receipt of a. Application Form & Rating Agreement and b. Full payment towards initial rating fee as per agreement. Acuité starts the rating process only upon receiving a valid mandate.

2.Collection of Information & Data Entry

Upon receiving a rating mandate, Acuité seeks required information from the client a. Financial Information b. Non-financial information.
Such data and information collected is promptly uploaded onto Acuité'S rating workflow.

3.Management Interaction

Acuité analyst conducts a management interaction to further understand, inter alia, the client’s strategy, corporate actions, future plans, and seeks clarification on information provided.

4.Preparation of Rating Note

The analyst prepares a rating note in the prescribed format that captures the analyst's rating recommendation & reasons thereof, analysis, data & information.

5.Rating Committee & Rating Assignment

Rating Note is placed to the Rating Committee for deliberations and the rating analyst presents the case to the Committee. The Rating Committee then assigns the rating by majority opinion of the Rating Committee members.

6.Rating Acceptance*

Upon assignment of the rating, the rating analyst promptly informs the client about the rating assigned orally. Thereafter, a Letter of Acceptance (LoA) in the prescribed format is sought from the client.

7.Rating Dissemination**

Upon receipt of LoA, the Rating & the Rating Rationale is disseminated through a Press Release in the prescribed format and published on Acuité'S website.

8.Surveillance

The Rating, once accepted, is kept under constant surveillance throughout life of the instrument / facility (or until the rating is withdrawn) by monitoring developments within the rated entity, various economic and industry level factors that may influence the movement of the rating.

9.Review

To facilitate the surveillance and the review process, the rating analyst seeks updated information (financial / non-financial) from the client periodically. A review is conducted in periodic frequency as per Acuité'S policies and prevalent SEBI / RBI guidelines. A review may also be conducted sooner, should there be any event that warrants such a review on an out of turn basis.

*Appeal
The client has an option to appeal against the rating assigned. If the client chooses to appeal against the rating assigned, Acuité will accept such a request at its discretion, only upon being provided with additional, material information not provided earlier. Such a request can be made within 45 days of communication of rating and shall be accepted only once.

**Disclosure of Unaccepted Rating
Acuité will disclose the unaccepted ratings on its website 60 days after the communication of Rating to the client, as per prevailing SEBI guidelines.

Timeline
Once Acuité receives all required information from the client the rating process will be completed and the case will be presented at the Rating Committee Meeting within 3 to 4 weeks.