Agusto & Co. was founded by Mr. Olabode Agusto (MFR) in 1992, as a business information company with the view of gathering and providing information on select African economies and industries—the firm assigns risk ratings to issuers and issues present in Nigeria and on the African continent.

In 2001, Agusto & Co. was licensed, and is currently regulated, by Nigeria’s Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC). In 2013, the company was approved and registered as a credit rating agency by the capital market authorities of Kenya and Rwanda.

Our experience spans a range of industries, but primarily our core business unit consists of four teams: Banks & Insurance, Corporate & Municipal, Fund Investment Managers (FIMR), and Non-Bank Financial Institutions (NBFI).

Annually, we publish reports on key industries in Nigeria.  Our mission is to provide timely and relevant information to our clients on the economies in which we operate. For over two decades, Agusto & Co. has provided investors with invaluable information and sound financial analysis, promoting transparency and best practices. Our clientele base spans local and international corporations.

Ratings

Our ratings are monitored and can be notched upwards or downwards due to company-specific and/or industry-specific events.  Since our inception we have assigned over 2,500 ratings.

 Industry Research

Agusto & Co. has established a good reputation for quality research and sound economic risk analysis. Agusto & Co. takes pride in its ability to create outstanding value for its clients based on our knowledge of macroeconomics, finance, and key industries within the Nigerian economy.

Over the last two decades, we have built a strong reputation for producing quality reports, with sound economic and risk analysis.

Our research team publishes industry reports by analysing developments and operators in key industries. We have a robust database that spans various sectors and players in the economy. In addition, we have developed industry risk rating models, which we have used in assigning industry risk ratings over the years.

Our reports cover the following industries:

• Asset management
• Aviation
• Banking
• Breweries
• Cement
• Construction
• Hotels
• Insurance
• Microfinance
• Mortgage banking
• Oil & gas upstream
• Oil & gas downstream
• Oil & gas servicing
• Personal care
• Pharmaceuticals
• Pension
• Power
• Real estate
• Rice
• Soft drinks
• Sugar
• Textiles
• Telecommunications

 Credit Risk Management

Agusto & Co. currently offers two major credit risk management solutions:

• The Agusto & Co. Credit Risk Management Application
• The Agusto & Co. FinTech Credit Scoring System

The Agusto & Co. Credit Risk Management Application (CRMA) offers banks and other financial institutions credit rating models that are tried and tested. Agusto & Co.’s credit rating models have been continuously developed and tested in Nigeria for more than 28 years. The Agusto & Co. CRMA includes our flagship corporate rating model, which applies to companies with reliable financial accounts and our commercial model, which applies to companies with less reliable financial accounts. Features of the Agusto & Co. CRMA include:

• Rating history tracking
• Rating migration matrix/probability of default generation for the different rating classes.

The Agusto & Co. FinTech Credit Scoring System (FinTech System) offers banks and other financial institutions the ability to assess the creditworthiness of obligors for Small and Medium sized enterprises (SMEs) or retail loans. Such obligors generally do not have financial accounts. The Agusto & Co. FinTech System, thus, employs supervised machine learning to create scorecards that measure obligors’ ability to pay as and when due. The Agusto & Co. FinTech System utilises the institution’s data including customer, loan, credit history and bank account information to select the best predictors of obligor payment behaviour (cross-validation) and to choose the best algorithm for making this prediction (grid search).

We provide our clients with analysis of key markets and industries not included in our existing coverage. These reports provide pertinent information and extensive financial analysis on key markets and are tailored to meet the specific needs of our individual clients.

Speaking Engagements

Agusto & Co. offers speaking engagement services on broad macroeconomic topics and the impact of these on key industries and organisations.  We make presentations to organizations during strategy & management sessions to support goal setting and competitive positioning in an increasingly dynamic macroeconomic environment.

Customized Research

Agusto & Co. provides clients with studies on key markets and industries, which may not be included in our existing coverage. These reports provide pertinent information and extensive financial analysis on key markets and are tailored to meet the specific needs of our clients. Agusto & Co. shares synergies with our consulting business in the provision of customised research. Thus, the solutions we provide to our clients are based on a pragmatic approach. Specifically, our reports provide competitive profiling of  key players in the target industry covering strategy,  strengths and weaknesses. The reports also proffer solutions on how the target business can penetrate the market and enhance its competitive position in the industry. Our customised research reports also provide the following:

• a review of the client’s business model to ensure optimal use of available resources and the possible change in strategy

• detailed market Information to brownfield investors seeking to expand and greenfield investors seeking new playing fields
• independent market research to syndication clubs and other financiers on the viability of the industry
• a comprehensive review of operating strategies of peers and market penetration strategies.

If you would like to request for client-specific research for your organisation, kindly contact our Research Team.

Portfolio Analysis/Rating Validation

Portfolio analysis involves the review and assessment of a representative sample of a credit institution’s loan book using the Agusto & Co’s risk rating models. Specifically, we will:

• review a sample set of the Bank’s loan portfolio and assign ratings to these obligors

• produce a two-page report on each obligor in the sample

• analyse the loan portfolio based on ratings, classifications and adequacy of provisions.

Policy and Process Review

The objective of this solution is to complete a full diagnostic review of a credit institution’s financial risk management policies and procedures; to develop systems, processes and produce policy documents.