Highlights of the third quarter ended September 30, 2018 (financial year ending December 31, 2018)

• Total income up 10% year-on-year in the third quarter; profit after tax up 30% year-on-year
  
• Declared an interim dividend of Rs. 7 per share

The Board of Directors of CRISIL Ltd, at its meeting today, approved the unaudited financial results for third quarter ended September 30, 2018.

CRISIL’s consolidated income from operations for the quarter ended September 30, 2018, rose 4% to Rs 425.46 crore, compared with Rs 409.71 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2017. Consolidated total income for the quarter was up 10% to Rs 454.22 crore, compared with Rs 413.68 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. New client additions and ongoing focus on efficiencies has been a contributor to profit after tax growing by 30% to Rs 90.01 crore versus Rs 69.42 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

For the nine months ended September 30, 2018, consolidated income from operations increased 5% to Rs 1,281.46 crore, compared with Rs 1,217.56 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Consolidated total income was up 8% to Rs 1,335.20 crore, compared with Rs 1,238.71 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year. Profit after tax rose 19% to Rs 249.35 crore, versus Rs 208.81 crore in the corresponding period of the previous year.

The Board of Directors has declared a third interim dividend of Rs 7 per share (of Re 1 face value) for the financial year ending December 31, 2018.

“During the quarter, our sharp focus on driving superior customer value and relevant analytics enabled us to grow existing relationships and add new clients across businesses in a tough macro environment,” said Ashu Suyash, Managing Director & CEO, CRISIL. “Our continued focus on quality, and building new tools and analytics while commercialising existing products and solutions, will help us grow in a market that is likely to see continued headwinds.”

Revenue from Ratings was driven by healthy growth in bank loan ratings, partially offset by a decline in corporate bond issuances following a rise in yields. As of end-August this year, wholesale credit grew by 11.5% versus a muted growth of 1.7% same period last year. On the other hand, during the first nine months of calendar 2018, bond issuances dropped 38% versus a growth of 24% in the same period of 2017.

Research is seeing significant changes in the landscape globally as well as in India. Rising market volatility and cost pressures arising from MiFID II implementation is leading to several first-time offshorers looking to third-party providers for research solutions. That, in addition to our sharp focus on building a solution suite, has contributed to the global research business continuing to add clients.

Maturing regulations in the US have impacted demand for traditional regulatory and risk services. We are now seeing new demand emerging for similar services from other key markets that are tightening their regulatory stance. Consequently, business has sharpened focus on accelerating product development and is investing in new customer analytics and coverage.

CRISIL Coalition saw strong growth backed by renewals and improving price realisation as top global banks lookedfor deeper insights and client analytics. Further, with demand for data increasing, several clients have been onboardedto the Quantix and the enhanced Cutting Edge platforms of our India Research business.

Growth in the Advisory segment was led by Pragmatix Services Pvt Ltd, which was acquired earlier this year.Infrastructure Advisory also won prestigious mandates from multilaterals and government entities, including in theenergy sector.

Sharp focus on operational excellence and cost controls have helped improve margins. Forex has been favourable,too, with the dollar strengthening across currencies.

During the quarter, we released the third volume of CriSidEx, India’s first sentiment index for MSMEs. Further, wehosted events in India and abroad on topics such as ‘Monitoring credit risk and research portfolios as the credit cyclechanges’, “The Convergence of Analytics and Operations in AML with Machine Learning”, “Evolution of earlywarning system for lenders” and “Risk-based pricing”, among others.

CRISIL Foundation continues to work towards enabling financial inclusion and create a sustainable, deeper impactacross Assam, Haryana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan. As part of this effort, foundation launched Gram ShaktiCertification, a certification course to develop expertise to sustain and drive financial inclusion among the communitycadre of ‘Sakhis’.