SMERA targets to double revenues to Rs 100 cr in FY17

Small-businesses focussed rating agency SMERA is hoping to close the fiscal with revenues of Rs 50 crore and targeting to take it up to Rs 100 crore in the next financial year 2015-16, a top official has said.
"We will end this current fiscal with Rs 50 crore in revenues and will take it up to Rs 100 crore in FY16," its chief executive Sankar Chakraborti told PTI over the weekend.
He, however, refused to share the details of the bottomline, saying that it is a privately-held company.
Chakraborti said, the agency, which has rated 30,000 SMEs till now, will achieve the target largely by new product launches which are innovative in nature and also by concentrating on its core business of rating the small and medium enterprises, for which it was set up.

The agency launched a grading facility for NGOs, eyeing the opportunity which will be created by the mandatory social sector spending last week and will soon come up with a rating for hospitals, he said.
"We will be introducing one new product every month for the next few months," he added.

The company, which was formed in 2004 to help SMEs access bank financing easily and is celebrating its tenth year of operations, has prepared a vision roadmap for the future, under which it will be concentrating on execution, innovation and customer service to grow the business, he said.
"We are a debt-free, profitable and dividend paying company. All the shareholders are happy and willing to pump in more money as may be required," he added.

Its promoters SIDBI and information management company D&B hold around 68 per cent in the rating agency, while the remaining is held by ten banks.
When asked about peers like Care ratings listing itself, Chakraborti said the agency would look at the opportunities of unlocking the value for its shareholders by going for an IPO and will also require growth capital in the future, but added that there is no such move in the works at present.