Methods of Rating IT -Sector Companies by Level of Risks of Creditworthiness

Abstract

The subject of the research are the companies of the IT sector, as a strategically important sector in the information age. Their development of companies in the IT sector is associated with high risks and requires large volumes of investments, including attracting bank loans. In this regard, the purpose of the study was to develop an adequate sectoral methodology for rating companies in the IT sector by the level of creditworthiness risks using mathematical and statistical tools that make it possible to reliably assess the potential risks of investors. To achieve this goal, the study proposes a methodology for assessing the creditworthiness of IT companies based on a system of risk factors, which makes it possible to quantify the exposure of companies to two generalized risk groups: financial risk and business risks. Based on the cluster analysis, a rating table has been developed, according to which, depending on the calculated score, the category of the company’s creditworthiness is determined. The study concluded that the key factors affecting the creditworthiness of companies are: indicators of financial stability, return on assets, liquidity ratio, online advertising market size, as well as the share of intangible assets in the structure of assets and the amount of research costs. development and capital investments. The constructed scoring model was tested on the Mail.ru Group company (from 12.10.2021 — VK). Practical significance of the research results includes in the fact that the developed model can be applied not only for assessing creditworthiness, but also as one of the express methods of risk management in an organization.