CARE Ratings (Africa) Private Limited ("CRAF") is incorporated in Mauritius and provides credit ratings and related services in Mauritius. In addition to being the first credit rating agency to be licensed by the Financial Services Commission (Mauritius), CRAF is also recognised as an External Credit Assessment Institution by Bank of Mauritius. CRAF’s shareholders are CARE Ratings Limited ("CARE Ratings"), African Development Bank, MCB Equity Fund and SBM (NFC) Holdings Limited. The management control is with CARE Ratings which has majority shareholding. CRAF gets technical support in the areas such as methodologies, rating systems and procedures from CARE Ratings on an ongoing basis. The technical support shall ensure that CRAF has adequate resources to provide high quality credit opinions on an ongoing basis. CRAF’s endeavor is to offer investors and risk managers with independent, timely and insightful credit opinions based on detailed in-depth research, which includes detailed analysis of risks that affect credit quality of an issuer/entity. In Mauritius, CRAF provides rating for various instruments such as Bonds, Debentures, Commercial Paper, Bank Deposits, Structured Finance and other debt instruments besides the Bank Facilities such as term loans, working capital limits and non-funded exposures (guarantees / Letter of credits). CRAF also covers rating of issuers including insurance companies, banks and SMEs. CRAF is committed to the establishment of the highest standards of professional quality and integrity. In line with this, CRAF has set up its Rating Committee with full time members comprising officials from CARE Ratings. The company also has a panel of experts from Mauritius to assist the Rating Committee by providing valuable inputs about the economy, industry and corporate environment in Mauritius.
