Ratings

Credit ratings are assigned in keeping with Expert RA own methodology, considering specifics of the Russian economy. The Agency methodology was approved by leading international auditing-consulting companies PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte&Touche.

Expert RA, same as other national rating agencies, operates as consistent with the Basel committee recommendations.

Ratings of separate aspects of companies’ social responsibility

Purely business information is nowadays insufficient for taking investment decisions - potential investors also require assessment of social life of a company, including its interaction with shareholders, society in general, attitude towards environment.

As of 2003 Expert RA Rating Agency has assigned to companies ratings of environmental liability, allowing a reliable assessment of environment-related activity. Our methodology was approved by the World Wildlife Fund and other non-governmental environment organizations. Ratings of environmental liability have been currently assigned to 30 companies.

In 2004 the Agency in consortium with the Russian Institute of Directors (RID) has embarked on a “National rating of corporate governance” project. The project is characterized by giving broad coverage of domestic companies and permitting to form a judgement related to corporate governance quality in almost all Russian joint-stock companies of interest for portfolio investors. Currently corporate governance rating of Expert RA-RID consortium has been assigned to 150 companies.

Lists of economic branches’ largest companies and leaders

Since day one Expert RA Rating Agency has been regularly preparing and publishing ranking lists (rankings) of the largest Russian companies (including the most weighty list of the largest Russian companies “Expert-400”), as well as information on leaders in different segments of the Russian economy (IT, insurance and leasing, auditing-consulting, etc).

The results constitute good ground for analysis of the Russian economy in general and its branches in particular.

Investment ratings of regions

Since 1996 Expert RA Rating Agency has been annually preparing and publishing the rating of investment attraction of the Russian regions. The rating methodology is based on assessing investment potential and risks in each subject of the Russian Federation. The investment attraction rating has been approved by federal and regional authorities, investors and business communities as a reliable instrument, providing for analysis of regional trends and proper investment decisions.

Besides assessing the level of investment attraction of the Russian Federation subjects, Expert RA Rating Agency estimates investment and business climate of municipal formations and CIS countries. Recently the Agency has prepared the rating of business climate in large Russian towns, as well as investment rating in Kazakhstan regions.