Highlights for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2019

• CRISIL’s consolidated income from operations for the quarter was Rs 464.3 crore and for the year was 1,731.7 crore
  
• CRISIL Ratings and CRISIL Coalition register strong growth despite a challenging business environment
  
• Final dividend of Rs 13 per share recommended. Total dividend of Rs.32 per share for the year 2019 vs Rs. 30 per share previous year
  

The Board of Directors of CRISIL Ltd, at its meeting today, approved the audited financial results for quarter and year ended December 31, 2019.

CRISIL’s consolidated income from operations for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, was Rs 464.3 crore, compared with Rs 467.0 crore in the corresponding quarter of 2018. Consolidated total income for the quarter ended December 31, 2019, was Rs 484.3 crore, compared with Rs 496.5 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Profit after tax was Rs 95.3 crore, compared with Rs 113.8 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year. Profit after tax for the quarter ended December 31, 2018, included additional credits arising out of sale of SEIS (Service Export Incentive Scheme) scrips, tax credits for past years and one time additional expense provision for receivables. Adjusted for these items profit after tax for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 grew by 6.4%.

Consolidated income from operations for the year ended December 31, 2019, was Rs 1,731.7 crore compared with Rs 1,748.5 crore in the previous year. Consolidated total income was Rs 1,814.5 crore, compared with Rs 1,831.7 crore in the previous year. Profit after tax was Rs 344.0 crore, compared with Rs 363.1 crore in the previous year.

During 2019, the company paid three interim dividends totaling Rs 19 per equity share of face value of Re 1 each. The Board of Directors has recommended a final dividend of Rs 13 per share (of Re 1 face value). The total dividend for the year works out to Rs 32 per share.

Ashu Suyash, Managing Director & CEO, CRISIL, said, “Our relentless focus on delivering value by leveraging our analytical rigour and quality, and making a difference to the customer helped us navigate the myriad headwinds. The Ratings business logged robust growth despite a slowing economy, while on the global front, Coalition did well even as regulatory changes and tempering demand for traditional risk offerings in the US affected our Risk and Analytics business. We continue to invest in technology and innovation given the increasing demand for niche tools and products globally.”

The domestic economic scenario continues to be muted, with GDP growth expected to print at a decadal low, investment appetite weak, and continued stress in the financial sector. During the year ended 2019, credit growth slipped to single digit, while wholesale credit growth fell below 4% towards the end of the year. Corporate bond issuances grew 14%, driven primarily by frequent issuers – the number of issuers declined by 30% year-on-year. Bank loan ratings market fell a sharp 28% year-on-year.

Globally, corporate and investment banking revenue pool is estimated to have declined 3% in 2019 owing to weakness in the equities and banking space and margin pressures persisted. Trade wars and geopolitical developments continued to affect business environment.

Revenues of CRISIL Ratings were up a strong 8% year-on-year in the fourth quarter and 12% for calendar 2019, on the back of ratings quality, addition of large corporate clients, increase in securitisation mandates, and new offerings such as Independent Credit Evaluation (ICE). The business continued to innovate and rated India’s first wholesale real estate sector receivables securitisation transaction and the first partial credit enhanced (PCE) bond transaction in accordance with the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) PCE guidelines. The Global Analytical Center (GAC) increased coverage for S&P Global Ratings in the areas of new analytics such as ESG, and sharpened focus on automation and optimisation by leveraging new technologies to streamline operations in data and analytics.

The Research segment performance in the quarter and the full year was led by Coalition, which saw robust traction in client and competitor analytics. Coalition continued its initiatives aimed at enhancing market relevance and broadening its reach to include more regional players. The India Research business saw growth in funds and fixedincome research by leveraging its proprietary data and analytics platform Quantix for asset and wealth managers, and institutional investors. But the segment’s performance was affected by changing demand in the risk and analytics space, with the global financial services sector preparing itself for the next wave of regulations. We continued to invest in augmenting our talent pool and in new technologies to meet changing demand of our clients. During the quarter, CRISIL executed definitive agreements to acquire Greenwich Associates LLC and the transaction is expected to be completed over the next couple of months subject to customary closing conditions and approvals.

For the full year, the Advisory segment grew on the back of new wins in the credit risk, regulatory reporting and business analytics space in addition to new mandates from government and multilaterals in the infrastructure space.

CRISIL hosted the third annual edition of the India Infrastructure Conclave, titled ‘The central role of states in India’s infrastructure build-out’, which also saw the launch of the CRISIL Infrastructure Yearbook 2019 edition. CRISIL also hosted the 4th annual seminar on NBFCs titled, ‘The NBFC reset - re-orienting business models amid headwinds’. CRISIL Analytica, a monthly e-newsletter for issuers, was also launched in the December quarter. In addition, CRISIL and S&P Global Ratings jointly hosted the 4th edition of India Outlook Seminar titled “‘Tracing the grind-up'. Roundtables on model risk management were organized in London and New York.

Through Gram Shakti, an online platform to train rural women as financial health workers, CRISIL Foundation equipped over 500 women to promote financial literacy and inclusion at village level during the year. The December quarter also saw CRISIL being presented the prestigious National CSR Award by Honorable President of India, Ramnath Kovind for CSR in Challenging Circumstances, North-East for the flagship project Mein Pragati.