A credit rating agency assigns ratings that show the credit worthiness of a company to an issuer of debt obligations and debt instruments.

Other credit rating agencies in India include, Crisil and Icra. D&B will have a minimum stake of 51 per cent in the new JV and it has the option to raise its stake. SIDBI will hold a maximum stake of 26 per cent, while another Indian investor would be roped in to hold some stake as well. The JV will have an initial equity base of about Rs 16 crore.

D&B and SIDBI, along with Credit Information Bureau (India) Ltd and other banks in the country, already operate the SME Rating Agency or SMERA. The agency is engaged in scoring, analysis, rating, evaluation, and appraisal of micro, small and medium enterprises to facilitate credit flow to such companies.

Dun & Bradstreet, world’s leading source of global business information, knowledge and insight, has been enabling companies to decide with confidence for 165 years. D&B’s global commercial database contains more than 100 million business records.

The database is enhanced by D&B’s proprietary DUNSRight Quality Process, which transforms the enormous amount of data collected daily into decision-ready insight. Through D&B worldwide network - an unrivaled alliance of D&B and leading business information providers around the world - customers gain access to the world’s largest and highest quality global commercial business information database.

Customers use D&B risk management solutions to mitigate risk, increase cash flow and drive increased profitability, D&B sales and marketing solutions to analyse markets, locate prospects and increase revenue from new and existing customers; D&B Export marketing solutions to gain significant insight into overseas markets and increase sales; D&B financial education solutions to facilitate professional growth and excellence among their executives and D&B economic analysis group to derive pragmatic and solution-oriented analyses of strategic economic and business developments, thereby aiding informed decision making.

D&B features on Fortune magazine’s most admired companies’ industry list, ranking first in the financial data services category. D&B ranked first in the areas of employee talent, financial soundness, long-term investment, quality of management and use of corporate assets. D&B has achieved this distinction for the second consecutive year.