Q3 FY17 Highlights: (Financial year ending December 31, 2017)

• Total revenue up 5.6% YoY in the third quarter; Operating profit up by 10.0%
  
• Regulatory developments and strong demand supported robust growth in corporate ratings
  
• Declared an interim dividend of Rs 6 per share

The Board of Directors of CRISIL Limited, at its meeting today, approved the unaudited financial results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2017.

CRISIL’s consolidated income from operations was up 5.6% to Rs 410.41 crore during the quarter, compared with Rs 388.76 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2016. Operating profit (before other income and finance cost) for the quarter was up 10.0% to Rs 98.21 crore. Net profit stood at Rs 69.42 crore, compared with Rs 69.96 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2016.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2017, consolidated income from operations increased 8.6% to Rs 1,219.94 crore, compared with Rs 1,122.78 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Consolidated profit after tax was Rs 208.81 crore, compared with Rs 203.34 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

Net profit for the nine months ended September 30, 2017, includes adverse forex impact of Rs 13.78 crore, compared with a gain of Rs 6.46 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The Board of Directors has declared a third interim dividend of Rs 6 per share (of Re 1 face value) for the financial year ending December 31, 2017.

Ashu Suyash, Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer, CRISIL said “All our three key business verticals – Ratings, Research and Advisory – delivered healthy growth during the quarter. While Large Corporate Ratings and Infrastructure Advisory services led growth for CRISIL’s domestic business, internationally CRISIL Coalition did well. Our operating margins improved with our initiatives on cost optimization.”

Capital market activities in the quarter were buoyant and regulatory guidance on dual ratings aided demand for ratings. Softening yields and lending restraint by banks provided further fillip to bond market issuances which displayed double digit growth. The market demand coupled with investor push towards quality in ratings led to strong demand for CRISIL’s large corporate ratings which witnessed the addition of multiple marquee clients. However, the Ratings segment overall logged moderate growth on account of slowdown in SME segment resultant from reduction in subsidy scheme.

Increased regulatory controls and cost optimization needs in global markets continued to drive need for Global Research & Analytics (GR&A) offerings. The GR&A business registered new client wins during the quarter. The performance of the GR&A business was impacted by forex rate movements and seasonality that is typical in this quarter as Banks are in the planning phase and are focussed on assessing regulatory feedback and requirements for next cycle of submissions. Coalition witnessed steady demand for its niche offerings such as competitor analytics, institutional wallet and corporate wallet, and increased presencewith marquee global and regional banks.

CRISIL Risk and Infrastructure Solutions (CRIS) Ltd, a wholly owned subsidiary of CRISIL Ltd is seeingpromising demand for its services. Infrastructure Advisory business particularly has seen significanttraction with multiple new mandates particularly in the urban space with ministries and municipalcorporations. During the quarter, this business won new mandates for assistance on value capturefinancing in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab.

CRISIL continues to invest in developing innovative products and solutions, and in leveraging newtechnologies, which are expected to drive growth across various businesses in the near future. The Ratingsbusiness focussed on tapping emerging opportunities from InvITs, REITs, and ratings products forstressed assets. Our recently launched proprietary analytical tools and offerings such as SMART(focussed on global investment research) and Quantix (a data analytics platform) are witnessing goodmarket response and traction with clients. The Risk Solutions business has also launched a new offeringon model risk management to test efficacy and health of existing models in the BFSI space.

CRISIL Foundation made significant new strides in furthering their agenda of enhancing the financialcapability of rural India. In addition to their existing coverage of 1.5 lakh women in Assam and Rajasthan,the foundation launched 20 ‘Money-Wise Centres for Financial Literacy’ in Haryana and Maharashtra witha vision to cover more than 2000 villages and 6 lakh households over period of three years. These centreshave been set up under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI’s) pilot project to drive financial literacy and thefoundation is the first corporate foundation to be receive empanelment from the Reserve Bank of India fortheir financial literacy initiatives and inclusion.

Our focus on investor outreach and franchise development continues. We hosted 11 events including 2which were co-hosted by CRISIL and S&P - ‘India Credit Spotlight - Opportunities and Risks in the Faceof Reforms’ in Mumbai and ‘MIFID II and the changes in research consumption practices’ in London.