Credit Rating Agencies - Miscellaneous - Medium / SmallNSE / BSE
ICRA Limited is a leading independent provider of investment information and credit risk assessment services. ICRA possesses substantial domain depth supported by advanced analytical models, sector-specific research frameworks and technology-enabled data processing capabilities.
ICRA established as an independent and professional investment information and credit rating agency in collaboration with leading financial/investment institutions, commercial banks, and financial services companies. The Company rates rupee-denominated debt instruments issued by Manufacturing Companies, Commercial Banks, Non-Banking Finance Companies, Financial Institutions, Public Sector Undertakings and Municipalities. They further rates structured obligations and sector-specific debt obligations such as instruments issued by Power, Telecom and Infrastructure companies. The other services include the Corporate Governance Rating, Stakeholder Value and Governance Rating, Credit Risk Rating of Debt Mutual Funds, Rating of Claims Paying Ability of Insurance Companies, Project Finance Rating, and Line of Credit Rating.
ICRA Limited was originally incorporated as 'Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited' on January 16, 1991 issued by leading financial/investment institutions, commercial banks and financial services companies as an independent and professional Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency. ICRA and its subsidiaries together formed The ICRA Group of Companies. The name of the Company was changed to ICRA Limited from Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited on September 29, 1994.
The Company launched Credit Rating Service on September 1, 1991. In 1993, it launched Investment Information Service and Research Publications and in 1995, it launched the services of Credit Assessment for small and medium scale industries and Earning Prospects and Risk Analysis for Equity Investor. In 1996, the Company signed an agreement with Moody's Risk Management Services to provide credit education, risk management software, credit research and consulting services to commercial banks, financial and investment institutions, financial services companies and mutual funds in India.
In the year 1997, the company launched ICRA Bulletin and in the year 1998, they introduced a Rating Methodology for the Claims Paying Ability of General Insurance companies in India. In the year 1999, the company became the first Indian Rating Agency to rate all Non-Life Insurance companies in the country. Also, they launched Rating service for Debt Fund Scheme and Grading Service for entities involved in construction projects.
In the year 2001, Moody's Investment Company India (Pvt) Ltd became the largest shareholder in the company. In the same year, the company launched their Corporate Governance Ratings for the Indian Market. Also, they joined with National Real Estate Development Council and launched the ICRA-NAREDCO Grading System for real estate developers and projects.
In the year 2002, the company launched Grading scheme for Healthcare institutions in India and in the year 2003, they launched Project Finance Assessment/ Rating Service. Also, the company entered into a shareholder and subscription agreement with Online IndiaCapital.com.
In the year 2004, the company launched the services of Grading of Mutual Fund Management Quality and Maritime Training Institutes in India. In the year 2005, they launched NSIC-ICRA Performance and Credit Rating Scheme for Small Scale Enterprises in India.
In the year 2006, the company demerged their Consulting Division and transferred to ICRA Management Consulting Services Ltd with effect form April 1, 2005. Also they acquired ICRA Online Ltd and Computer Exchange Pvt Ltd, which were renamed as ICRA Techno Analytics Ltd. During the year 2006-07, the company acquired the balance shares of ICRA Online Ltd and converting ICRA Online Ltd to a wholly owned subsidiary company.
In March 2007, the Company came up with an IPO of issuing 2,581,100 Equity Shares through Offer for Sale.
During the year 2007-08, ICRA Techno Analytics Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary company incorporated ICRA Techno Analytics, Inc in US and also acquired a Kolkata based software services company namely, Axiom Technologies Pvt Ltd. ICRA Management Consulting Services Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary company signed a MoU with Dun & Bradstreet Philippines Inc. and Virtus Global Partners Inc for offering advisory/consulting services in Philippines and USA respectively.
During the year 2014, ICRA Techno Analytics Limited (ICTEAS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the Company, through its subsidiary ICRA Global Capital Inc., increased its equity stake to 100% in BPA Technologies Inc. (BPA), thereby making BPA a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICTEAS. BPA is a California-based global business consulting and software technology services firm. Other than in California, BPA has development centres in Chennai and Visakhapatnam. Focused on enterprise content management, enterprise portal and collaboration, BPA offers strategy consulting, implementation and application management services in its areas of specialisation.
Moody's Singapore Pte Ltd along with Moody's Investment Company India Private Limited and Moody's Corporation made a Conditional Open Offer under Regulation 3(2) and Regulation 4 of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Substantial Acquisition of Shares and Takeovers) Regulations, 2011 (Takeover Regulations) vide a Public Announcement dated February 21, 2014 for the acquisition, from public shareholders, of up to 26,50,000 equity shares, representing 26.50% of the total equity shares, of the Company, at a price of Rs. 2,000 per equity share and subsequently revised the price upwards to Rs. 2,400 per equity share. The tendering period commenced on June 3, 2014 and closed on June 16, 2014. Pursuant to the closing of the tendering period, Moody's Singapore Pte Ltd acquired 2,154,722 equity shares tendered in the Open Offer, amounting to a total of 21.55% of the equity share capital of the Company. This resulted in an increase in the Moody's Group's total equity shareholding in the Company to 50.06% of the equity share capital of the Company.
During 2016-17, the Company sold its Kolkata-based wholly owned subsidiary, which engaged in information technology and business analytics services.
In FY2018, Company rated the first collateralised loan obligation (CLO) transaction, post the 2006 RBI guidelines on securitisation. ICRA, along with National Small Industries Corporation Limited (NSIC), launched a Performance and Credit Rating Scheme for Small-Scale Enterprises in India in 2018.
The Company rated the first REIT vehicle launched in the country in the Structured Finance Division in 2019. The Company was associated with rating of the first Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT) under the SEBI REIT Regulations, 2014 in year 2019.
During 2021-22, the Company mandated the credit rating agencies to monitor the end use of equity issue proceeds, which was till then being done by banks and in 2023, SEBI further expanded this role to include monitoring of preferential issues and Qualified Institutional Placements (QIPs) as well.
In FY 2023, Company was involved in rating new and complex structures such as the Revolver Structure for merchant loan receivables as well as secularization of trade receivables.
The Company expanded risk assessment and analytics solutions by acquiring D2K Technologies India Pvt Ltd.- a software solutions provider specializing in services for banks and financial institutions in FY 2024. It launched models for sub- investment grade valuation as a growing ask of the market in 2024.
The Company ventured into ESG Ratings assigning the first rating to InCred Financial Services in FY 2025. It diversified the activities into adjacent and high-impact areas such as risk management, regulatory reporting and data-driven solutions. In addition, the partnership with Bitsight-a global leader in cyber risk management and a Moody's affiliate enhanced the innovation and client centric growth in FY 2025. ICRA Analytics launched new products like EQ360 for ESG data and Infre360 for infrastructure data. Company entered the domestic Fixed Income Index space for the co-development of Fixed Income Indices for the domestic market.
During the year 2025-26, Company acquired a 98.75% stake in Fintellix, making it a subsidiary. Fintellix's two wholly owned subsidiaries, Fintellix South Africa Proprietary Limited and Fintellix US LLC, became stepdown subsidiaries of the Company.
