The revenue of Russian chrows grew by 18% in 2024: Reasons
The revenue of Russian credit rating agencies in 2024 reached 1.77 billion rubles, exceeding the result of the previous year by 17%. The indicators are growing both due to an increase in the number of rating issuers and the issues of their debt papers, and due to price indexing. Agencies are actively developing international ratings both in the calculation of the arrival of foreign investors, and for Russian access to Russian companies.
The revenue of four Russian credit rating agencies (KRA) in 2024 increased by 18%, amounting to almost 1.77 billion rubles, it follows from published reports on transparency.
- Leadership is preserved by the “expert RA” (786 million rubles).
- Acre occupying the second line lags slightly (730 million rubles).
- The indicators of the other two agencies, the NKR and the NRA, entered the market much later, are still many times lower.
The main reasons for the increase in revenue in 2024, the market participants called the increase in the number of customers and indexing prices for services. At the same time, according to them, the revision of the price policy occurs once a year, but, as a rule, prices are indexed in accordance with the inflation level. As explained by the general director of the NKR rating agency Zorin Panchenko, « two -time growth touched both the ratings of corporations and financial sector companies and bond ratings. » “The total number of detached bond issues is constantly growing, the direction of structured and project financing is actively developing,” says ARKRA Director Alexei Mukhin.
A high key rate (in 2024 was 16–21%) does not interfere with the growth of the number of bond issues. According to CBONDS, in 2024 issuers placed debt papers by 6.86 trillion rubles, a third of the 2023 indicator (See “Kommersant” from January 13). According to Marina Chekurova expert general director of the expert RA, « many companies have already realized that the public market at the current moment is a cheaper borrowing tool, and there are no restrictions on the use of assets (pledges, guarantees) in this market. » In particular, the portfolio of the expert RA rating, bonds grew by more than 100 issues, while the entire portfolio exceeded 1000 credit ratings. According to Pavel Samiev, CEO of the Businessdr agency, more and more issuers who go out with a debut release, primarily in the high -profit bonds, and among them the number of rating companies is growing. ” According to him, this gave about 10% to the revenue of KRA.
In the total revenue, the share of additional services remains small – less than 7%, or a little more than 116 million rubles. In absolute terms. The low share is partly related to restrictions on the legislation.
Among the most popular pre-services are services in the field of ESG ratings (rating of companies in terms of environmental protection and actions in the social sphere), verification of tools for compliance with green or social bonding principles. “This direction in the last year showed limited growth, which restrained a more active increase in revenue in this area,” Mr. Mukhin notes.
At the same time, Russian rating agencies are gradually developing the functionality of international credit ratings, including against the background of interest in the Russian market by foreign issuers. “Now Belarusian companies and banks are already working in our market,” says Marina Chekurova. At the same time, the prospect of the release of other issuers “depends exclusively on economic expediency, but it is better to prepare for such exits in advance,” she said. The international rating is also in demand among Russian companies for use primarily outside Russia, for example, in Kazakhstan, in the regulation of which ARRA credit ratings on an international scale were included in 2023 along with the ratings of the international agencies « Big Three ». Assigning an international rating is a way to create an understandable signal for investors about the reliability of the issuer, says Ilya Ivaninsky, director of the Center for Business Education and Analysts of the Central University. In addition, according to him, one of the initiatives proposed by Russia as part of the chairmanship of BRICS in 2024 is “this is the establishment of a system of mutual recognition of credit ratings between countries”.
