Crisil revamps board post S&P's buyout

Crisil has pared its board composition from 12 members to eight following a majority stake acquisition by Standard & Poor's (S&P). S&P recently acquired 58 per cent stake in Crisil.

Three additional S&P representatives will be inducted on the board, in addition to an existing S&P representative. The three new S&P members will replace existing independent directors on the board.

The domestic rating agency will be split into two units in terms of existing businesses and international operations.

"There is no change in the management team. The board of Crisil will be reconstituted on July 21," said R Ravimohan, managing director & CEO, Crisil. He was speaking on the sidelines of a lecture on wealth management at the Indian Merchants' Chamber here today. The board will be headed by Ravimohan.

S&P will use Crisil as a backoffice for its international operations. "S&P's primary reason for acquiring majority stake in Crisil was to use our pool of about 1,000 people. This will be for analytical support, market coverage and product coverage," elaborated Ravimohan.

Currently about 100 of Crisil's employees are engaged in projects for S&P.

"Following the acquisition, S&P may be able to give us more projects, which have client confidentiality agreements assigned. Earlier such sensitive projects were not given to us since S& P held a much lower take of 9 per cent in Crisil," said Ravimohan. Crisil may consider hiring more people in case a need arises.

Crisil is internally working on strategies to leverage S&P's brand name in the domestic and international markets.

"With so many international names in the market today our creative team is working on how best we can leverage S&P's brand. Branding is about creating more comfort with our customers," added Ravimohan.