Canada rating agency to set up base in India

DBRS, a Canada-based rating agency, has decided to set up operations in India and is working towards making its brand a familiar name in the country.

The rating agency, which has a presence in North America and Europe, sees growing business opportunities in the fast growing economies especially in areas such as infrastructure finance.

David Roberts, chief economist with DBRS, said the country was an important component in the company's international expansion strategy. "Over the near term, our goal is to raise the familiarity of DBRS name in India's financial markets. While we are yet to finalise our plans, we do expect to establish a permanent presence in the country and are actively exploring how best to accomplish this goal," he added.

The agency has considerably expanded worldwide in the last three years and now has offices in New York, Chicago, London, Paris and Frankfurt. It has been growing particularly in the structured finance and financial institution ratings.

The agency has already initiated country monitoring work and assigned sovereign credit rating to India. The agency has assigned BBB (low) rating to both the long-term foreign currency and long-term local currency obligations of the country.

"We expect to provide ratings to the growing number of international issuances by Indian companies, particularly in industrial, natural resources, transportation and energy sectors," he said.