IEOM’s company rating: A key reference for businesses
IEOM’s company rating provides an objective, independent, and concise assessment of a business’s financial situation.
This information is confidential and shared only with the rated company and institutions as defined by Article L. 721-27 of the French Monetary and Financial Code.
The rating serves as a common reference for both you – the business leader – and your lenders, helping to facilitate constructive dialogue.
What is company rating ?
The company rating system developed by IEOM assesses a business’s ability to meet its financial commitments over a one- to three-year horizon. It is composed of two elements :
- The activity rating which reflects the company’s level of activity, measured by revenue or the volume of business handled.
- The credit rating which evaluates the company’s capacity to meet its financial obligations over the next one to three years.
The rating is based on the collection, processing, and analysis of descriptive, accounting, financial, banking, and legal information. It also takes into account qualitative and forward-looking elements that the business owner may have shared with IEOM. The final rating is determined on an expert-opinion basis by IEOM’s financial analysts.
| Activity rating | level of activity (en millions de F CFP) |
|---|---|
| A | ≥120 000 |
| B | ≥24 000 and <120 000 |
| C | ≥12 000 and <24 000 |
| D | ≥6 000 and <12 000 |
| E | ≥3 600 and <6 000 |
| F | ≥1 200 and <3 600 |
| G | ≥240 and <1 200 |
| H | ≥50 and <240 |
| J | <50 |
| N | No significant |
| X | Turnover unknown or too old |
| Credit rating | |
|---|---|
| 1 | Excellent |
| 2 | Strong |
| 3 | Good |
| 4 | Intermediate |
| 5 | Fragile |
| 6 | Low |
| 7 | Requiring specific attention due to at least one payment default |
| 8 | Threatened due to reported payment defaults |
| 9 | Compromised Reported payment defaults indicating strained cash flow |
| P | Collective proceedings Judicial recovery or liquidation |
| 0 | No accounting documentation analysed and no adverse information |
Why is the company rating important ?
The rating facilitates dialogue with financing institutions :
- The rating facilitates dialogue with financing institutions ;
- It helps lenders and investors to better understand the risks involved in working with your company, making discussions and negotiations more effective ;
- By offering an external and objective view of your company’s financial situation, the rating enables you to identify strengths and weaknesses in your financial management, thus improving your debt repayment capacity.
The rating is also a key element :
- For banking supervision: Ratings help supervisory authorities assess the quality of banks’ loan portfolios and the associated risk levels;
- In monetary policy: IEOM uses the rating to evaluate the risk of receivables pledged as collateral by banks requesting refinancing as part of their liquidity management. The better the rating of a company, the less its receivables are discounted, enabling banks to obtain greater liquidity from IEOM
The company rating process
IEOM’s company rating process is based on a series of key steps designed to ensure a precise and objective assessment :
- Data collection : IEOM gathers financial and economic information from various sources, including the companies themselves, commercial court registries, statistical institutes, banks, social security institutions, and legal announcement publications. These data provide a comprehensive view of credit risk.
- Expert analysis :For companies exceeding a certain threshold in turnover or financial debt, an in-depth analysis is carried out. This includes both quantitative methods – such as financial ratio analysis – and qualitative assessments, including governance evaluation and market positioning.
- Rating assignment : Each company receives a rating composed of an activity rating (a letter) reflecting the level of turnover, and a credit rating (a number) indicating the company’s position on a credit risk scale.
- Communication : The rating is reviewed annually or whenever new information becomes available. It is shared with the companies concerned and integrated into the EDEN platform (Enterprise Data Exchange Network), which is accessible exclusively to financial institutions.
The EDEN Data Platform
Is your business subject to IEOM’s rating system ?
The IEOM rating applies to all non-financial industrial or commercial companies with their registered office located in the Pacific overseas territories.
There are two rating regimes :
- For companies with annual turnover equal to or greater than 50 million CFP francs, or with bank debt exceeding 25 million CFP francs, the rating is based on an in-depth assessment of accounting documents, as well as qualitative and forward-looking elements ;
- Below these thresholds, the rating is based on information collected from credit institutions, financing companies, and legal announcement publications.
Who can access my company rating and how?
Your company’s rating is confidential. Access is governed by the French Monetary and Financial Code (Article L.721-27), which restricts its availability to certain stakeholders :
- The company’s director : As the legal representative, you receive the rating free of charge and automatically. You can consult it at the IEOM office in your territory. A meeting with an IEOM expert can also be arranged for further explanation.
- Economic and financial stakeholders : Banks and other financial institutions that are members of the EDEN database have access to the rating. However, they are not permitted to share this information outside their organisation.
