Moody's for open offer of $85.4 mn to up ICRA stake

International credit rating agency Moody’s has made a voluntary and conditional open offer to raise its holding in another rating agency ICRA from 28.5 per cent to up to 55 per cent for which it may fork out Rs 530 crore ($85.4 million).

The offer is conditional upon Moody’s picking a minimum number of shares which would give it at least 50 per cent holding in the country’s second largest rating agency, said sources close to merchant bankers. This would involve shareholders tendering shares worth at least Rs 430 crore ($69 million). Citigroup is managing the open offer.

Further, the third largest rating agency in the country CARE is also in the process of attracting a new investor. A group of five institutional shareholders including IDBI, who together hold over 45 per cent in CARE, are proposing to sell around 38.3 per cent in the company to a foreign investor.

ICRA started operations as Investment Information and Credit Rating Agency of India Limited (later renamed ICRA Limited) in 1991. Five years later, it signed an agreement with Financial Proformas Inc (FPI), now called 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.