"The Exim Bank rating indicates highest safety and a fundamentally strong position and the risk factors are negligible. The rating takes into cognisance the strength Exim derives from its government ownership and high capital adequacy," an Icra release issued in Mumbai on Thursday said. Icra has also reaffirmed the `LAAA' rating for the existing Rs 1000-crore bond issue (two trenches of Rs 500 crore each) and the `MAAA' rating for the Rs 800-crore medium term programme consisting of FD and certificate of deposit.

The revised rating for IFB Finance indicates that the debt instrument is either already in default or expected to default. "The company law board has recently admitted a scheme submitted by the company for deferred payment to the fixed deposit holders over a period of next 40 months," the Icra release said. Meanwhile, the Credit Rating Information Services of India Ltd (Crisil) has upgraded the ratings assigned to the non convertible debenture (NCD) issues of Mahindra and Mahindra limited (M&M) to `AAA' from `AA+'.

"The rating revision is on account of the improvement in the company's financial risk profile subsequent to the conversion of the company's foreign currency convertible bonds, consistently strong market position in the utility vehicle and tractor businesses, and the beneficial effects of the business process re-engineering exercise on the company's cost structure.

The rating assumes a consolidation of the company's present business without any significant capital expenditure plans. The `P1+' rating assigned to M&M's Rs 240-crore commercial paper (CP) programme has been reaffirmed," Crisil said. Meanwhile, the `AA-' rating assigned by Crisil to the Rs 2.6-crore NCD programme and the `P1+' rating assigned to the Rs 15-crore CP programme of Esab India Ltd (ESAB) have also been reaffirmed by Crisil.

"The rating factors in the company's comfortable financial position with cash levels matching overall debt and the market and operational strengths in its welding business," the Crisil release said. Crisil has also assigned `P1+' rating to the Rs 7-crore CP programme of Cheminor Drugs Ltd (Cheminor). The rating factors in the research driven operations which, should help in emerging a low cost quality producer and introduce new products in the pharmaceutical business, diversified sales profile with strong international alliances and financial flexibility by virtue of being a Dr Reddy's group company. The rating agency has also assigned the `P1+' rating to the Rs 50 crore CP programme of Dr Reddy's Laboratories Ltd (DRL).