Rapid Ratings Wins Energy Risk Innovation of the Year Award

May 17, 2012 - PRLog -- Rapid Ratings, the alternative ratings, research and analytics firm, today announced that it has won the Innovation of the Year Award by Energy Risk magazine. This award recognizes Rapid Ratings’ achievements with corporate energy clients as well as its accurate assessment of brokerage firm MF Global in the wake of MF Global’s 2011 collapse; Rapid Ratings considered it a High Risk company over two years before other rating firms.

Energy companies make up an important segment of Rapid Ratings’ corporate client base. Its energy clients have users across Asia, Europe and North America. As deteriorating global economic conditions and market volatility continue to make understanding financial health more important than ever, the energy industry has turned increasingly to Rapid Ratings to help manage its corporate counterparty risk exposure cohesively across all geographies.

“We have worked with Rapid Ratings for a number of years for in-depth, independent ratings & analysis on hundreds of our public and private counterparties globally,” said Greg Cortez, Rapid Ratings client and Director of Credit at Hess Corporation. “Their reports, and the early warning they provide as to the true financial health of a business, represent a key pillar of our risk management process.”

Rapid Ratings’ quantitative and proprietary methodology employs company financials to produce objective analytics on a 0-100 point Financial Health Rating (FHR™) scale, distinguishing them from the competition. Rapid Ratings’ accurate High Risk ratings on companies who faced high-profile bankruptcies, such as MF Global, Petroplus and Enron, have solidified its reputation as a power player in the industry. The firm’s CEO, James Gellert, has testified four times before US Senate and House committees, most recently on February 2 to discuss the collapse of MF Global.

“We are honored to receive this recognition from Energy Risk,” said James Gellert, CEO.  “Innovation is an important pillar on which our company was founded. Our goal is to help our clients most effectively manage their risk by making financial health assessment achievable, repeatable and dependable. The energy industry is and will continue to be important to us, and we look forward to continued work with clients in this sector.”


About Rapid Ratings

Rapid Ratings is an alternative rating, research and analytics firm that enables organizations to most effectively assess the financial health of their customers, suppliers and investments. Its purely quantitative proprietary methodology employs company financials to produce objective, forward-looking analytics proven to exceed the accuracy of traditional ratings and risk metrics. Ratings are generated quarterly on an industry-specific, intuitive scale that provides a clear, comprehensive view of a company's financial viability. Rapid Ratings is the only firm that rates public and private US and non-US companies on the same basis, using the same system. Its coverage universe is growing daily and currently includes over 8,000 companies in 71 countries across all industry sectors.  Customized reports and services are provided to clients from Fortune 1000 companies, small- to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and buy- and sell-side financial institutions.