The Hindu Business Line : S&P may shift its rating biz to India from Singapore

Mr. R. Ravimohan (right), Managing Director and Region Head, South Asia, Standard and Poor’s; Mr Thomas Schiller, Managing Director and Region Head, Asia-Pacific; and Ms Roopa Kudva, Managing Director and CEO, Crisil India; at a press conference in Mumbai on Friday.

Our Bureau

Mumbai, July 27 Standard & Poor’s is looking to shift its cross-border ratings business, currently managed out of Singapore, to India. And this will be one of the responsibilities of Mr R. Ravimohan, S&P’s newly appointed Managing Director and Region Head for South Asia.

Reiterating the importance of India on S&P’s radar, Mr Thomas Schiller, S&P’s Executive Managing Director for Asia-Pacific said that the international rating agency was looking to make India the hub that would support and grow the cross-border business.

Larger Plan

But this would come at no loss of labour at Singapore, he indicated.

Mr Ravimohan said that the plan was to initially bring the servicing of Indian companies, about 34 of them that have accessed global markets, to be supported out of India. The larger plan would be to expand this support to the South-East-Asian region, he said.

The size of the business is about “a couple of million dollars,” he said and added that S&P would seek to leverage Crisil’s network to support the business.

About two years ago, S&P acquired 51 per cent in Crisil. Mr Ravimohan, the new head of S&P in the country, was earlier the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Crisil.

Though he has resigned from this post, he will remain a director on the board of Crisil. Ms Roopa Kudva, Executive Director and Chief Rating Officer, is the new Managing Director of Crisil.

Growth Prospects

As India increasingly integrates into the global markets and the local market gains in depth, the job ahead for the new chiefs would be to straddle these two missions, said Mr Ravimohan.

New generation products would be brought into India, with some local customisation, he indicated.

Retail credit was an area being evaluated and S&P is looking to file an application with the Reserve Bank of India for a licence, he said, adding that the details were being worked out.

On taking local products overseas, he singled out the rating of small and medium enterprises (SME). Crisil started this business about 18 months ago and has rated about 1,000 SMEs, he said.

Outlining the prospects for Crisil, Ms Kudva said that growth prospects were good with the RBI requiring businesses above Rs 10 crore to be rated.

Results

The Crisil group saw a marginal one per cent increase in its net profit after tax for the year ended June 30, 2007.

The company clocked net profits of Rs 16.11 crore for the period under review, as against Rs 16.01 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Ms Kudva said that the flat net profits in the quarter related to timing issues on booking income etc; the half-yearly performance reflected a 36 per cent growth in net-profit, she pointed out.

The company clocked total income of Rs 96.91 crore compared with Rs 68.10 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

For the six month or half-yearly period ended June 30, 2007, the company clocked a consolidated net profit after tax of Rs 34.20 crore (Rs 25.16 crore), up 36 per cent.

The total consolidated income for the half-year under review was Rs 187.63 crore (Rs 125.08 crore).

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