Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,
The origination of a new company on the Slovak market is not something exceptional - in no way.
In spite of the fact that in the recent years there were established thousands of companies in various business fields, there are just few, having the assessment of other companies as their main motive of origination. The Slovak Rating Agency, Inc. is one of those few.
So why has the Slovak Rating Agency, Inc. come into existence and why right now?
The Slovak financial and capital market is marked (besides the insufficient legislature and the absence of some system-elements usually working on developed markets) especially with the shortage of correctly structured and independently assessed information. The meaning of the term "independent" consists in this case mainly in the independence of the data-interpretation from the view of the provider of this information. This very provider's natural inclination often contradicts to the intentions of the transaction counterpart, e.g. the foreign or domestic investor or other kind of business partner. On markets in the stage, when they are just in the process of creating their own information standards and habits - it is inevitable to provide a product, which objectifies and standardises risks (especially the risk of the counterpart) - in a form comprehensible to all transaction parties. This applies especially to transactions involving a foreign, international element.
So it is just logical to ask the question, why this kind of company (as the Slovak Rating Agency is) has not originated earlier?
When launching any product to the market (and rating is a standard product designed for the financial and capital market) - it is very important (besides the quality of the product in itself of course) - to have a perfect timing for the product's market launch. We are convinced that the Slovak market was actually not ready to accept such kind of product by now.
Considering the forecast development of the Slovak market, we can expect that within a horizon of the few months coming, many market participants will feel the necessity of this sophisticated product, as "rating" undoubtedly is.
"Rating" is a natural component of the economy re-capitalisation, what is a process, which (as we think) makes already its first steps. The Slovak Rating Agency, Inc. wants to become a part of this process in Slovakia.
We look forward to all the discussions coming up - with our future Clients, partners, with the expert as well as the non-expert public etc. discussing the task of rating and its added value for business making.
We are also fully aware of the fact that there is still to do enormously much education work - but we are also well prepared for this demanding task - and we look forward to it.
Rudolf Autner
Chairman of the Board
CEO