European ratings agency ‘imminent’

PLANS to launch a European ratings agency to compete with S&P, Moody’s and Fitch are at an advanced stage and a new private institution could start business as soon as the first half of this year, German businessman Roland Berger told an Italian newspaper over the weekend.

The founder of the Roland Berger strategy consultancy said he hoped a new private, non-profit organisation, in the form of a foundation, could be ready in “the first half or the first nine months of the year,” according to Saturday’s Corriere della Sera.

Mr Berger, who has been lobbying European governments and companies to gather support and financing for a new agency, hopes to have raised the €300 million of capital needed from European investors by that time.