Navigating capital · Optimising ratings · Unlocking value
Independent credit rating advisory, led by former rating agency insiders.
ALPHA Ratings Advisory is a London-based corporate finance boutique. We help corporates, financial institutions and project finance issuers secure the optimal credit rating, ensuring a more flexible financing strategy. Unconflicted, senior-led and strictly confidential.
The bridge between strategy and credit
A credit rating is one of a company’s most valuable strategic assets.
It is a key driver of the cost of capital, determines financial flexibility and signals a company’s credit strength to markets. It should be considered an integral part of a company’s financial strategy, rather than simply an external assessment of its credit quality.
ALPHA Ratings Advisory provides rating advisory as a standalone service, independent of debt capital markets and lending considerations. That independence allows us to take a broader, more strategic and more in-depth view of an issuer’s credit profile. We work as an extension of our clients’ finance, treasury, risk and investor relations teams, their senior management and their boards, analysing their plans through the lens of the rating agencies. This allows them to understand the implications of a decision for their credit rating before they take it.
We thoroughly prepare management teams for meetings with the rating agencies and advise on financial strategy. We attend agency meetings and liaise directly with the agencies’ analytical teams, or work in the background, depending on what works best for the client and the outcome.
The ALPHA difference
One integrated advisory model
Rating advisers at investment banks generally work as technical experts supporting debt capital markets, leveraged finance or M&A teams. We offer rating advisory as a standalone service, which allows us to advise on financial strategy more broadly, with the credit perspective as our core strength.
Rating strategy
We advise on the rating objective and the best route with the rating agencies to achieve it. This includes optimising the capital structure, articulating the credit story and managing the dialogue with the rating agencies.
Capital structure strategy
We assess leverage and liquidity against profitability, financial flexibility and the weighted average cost of capital to achieve optimal outcomes for our clients.
Funding strategy & execution
We test every recommendation against the expectations of relationship banks, debt capital markets, institutional investors and private credit providers, so the plan can be executed.
An ongoing dialogue to optimise rating strategy, capital structure and the execution of capital markets transactions.
What we do
From inaugural rating to ongoing rating management
A credit rating is not a one-off exercise. We support clients from the first-time rating process through to ongoing rating management: anticipating how the agencies will view corporate events, keeping the credit story current and protecting the rating when conditions change.
First-time rating process & credit positioning
For companies approaching the rating agencies for the first time, and for rated issuers whose credit story has moved on, we help build or refine your financial strategy and credit story to achieve the optimal rating outcome.
Rating agency engagement
We manage the rating process end to end: drafting and refining the agency presentation, rehearsing management, attending the key meetings with you and resolving outstanding analytical queries.
Event-driven rating assessment
We model major corporate events – M&A, debt or equity issuance, restructuring – under different scenarios through the lens of the rating agencies to estimate the rating impact.
Rating defence
We help protect our clients’ credit ratings in times of macroeconomic stress or structural change in their business model by advising on financial communication with the rating agencies, challenging their analytical views and, where warranted, appealing rating decisions.
Track record
Rating outcomes that strengthened our clients’ access to capital
BBB- from S&P
Valterra Platinum
Three notches above the South African sovereign for a company whose cash flow comes entirely from South Africa – after top-tier banks had advised that investment grade was not achievable.
A3 (Moody’s) / A- (Fitch)
Africa Specialty Risks
An initial seven-notch uplift to Baa1 / BBB above its blended African sovereign exposure (B2/B) – the highest corporate rating in Africa, with $50m of capital, $74m of premium and a two-year track record – since upgraded to A3 and A-.
BB stable from S&P
Sibanye-Stillwater
Navigated commodity-price pressure to secure a direct upgrade from BB- negative, while stabilising outlooks at Moody’s (Ba2) and Fitch (BB). A $500m bond in May 2026 was more than five times oversubscribed.
Investment grade BBB- from Fitch
Unity Trust Bank
Positioned strong asset quality and a niche social-lending franchise to overcome agency concerns about concentrated, small scale – a 2025 revenue base of £95m and a small capital base.
Includes mandates led by members of the ALPHA team over the past 12 months.
Where we work
Sector depth, with an emerging-markets edge
Detailed knowledge of rating methodologies and processes across sectors, complemented by extensive experience in emerging-market credit, where sovereign considerations and regional economic characteristics are often part of the credit story.
Financial institutions
Banks, including neobanks, insurers, reinsurers and non-bank financial institutions.
Corporates
Mining and metals, energy, telecoms, consumer and industrials – first-time ratings, upgrades, and ratings advice through M&A and event-driven financings.
Real estate
Listed REITs, funds and developers: refinancing risk, development pipelines and portfolio growth presented as a forward-looking credit view.
Digital infrastructure & data centres
Hyperscalers, developers, neoclouds and their investors: understanding the rating consequences of a structure before the financing is finalised.
Public sector, MLIs & project finance
Multilateral lenders, sub-sovereign entities and public & project infrastructure finance, including ring-fenced and structured credits.
Middle East & Africa
A core regional focus built on our founder’s twelve years covering the region at Moody’s and a presence in both London and South Africa.
Why ALPHA
Independence at its core
Unparalleled rating advisory experience
Our added value comes from our ability to engage effectively with the rating agencies’ senior analysts and to translate our clients’ financial and business case into their rating frameworks. Our senior relationships extend to the CEOs and presidents of the major rating agencies – access that clients rarely have themselves, and which ensures their rating processes receive the attention they deserve.
Senior-led delivery
Every mandate is partner-led from the first meeting to the rating outcome. Clients deal directly with partners who have spent their careers on complex credits, supported by a network of senior advisers drawn from the ratings advisory leadership of major investment banks.
Unconflicted objectivity
Rating advisory is our only business. Our sole objective is to achieve the optimal rating outcome for our clients. Our advice and our views are not influenced by any debt capital markets or lending business driving fee pools.
Discretion
A confidential and independent sounding board for key strategic and board-level decisions, ensuring clients fully understand the financial and rating implications.
Our team
Senior partners with agency, banking and capital markets experience
News & Insights
Latest thinking
Moody’s Ratings London Banking Conference: four themes shaping bank strategy and risk
Geopolitical uncertainty, AI adoption and regulatory reform are reshaping banks’ operating environment at the same time. Notes from Thomas Sherlock.
Is Spain’s economic outperformance sustainable? Notes from Fitch Ratings’ Spanish banks conference
Immigration-led growth, a housing shortage and strong deleveraging: what Fitch’s Madrid conference says about the direction of Spanish bank ratings. Notes from Stanislas de Bazelaire.
Moody’s Ratings Advisory Roundtable: structured equity and gross versus net leverage
When does structured equity count as debt, and how do rating committees weigh gross against net leverage? Notes from Michael Boumendil.
Secure your cost of capital
To arrange a private, strictly confidential conversation about your rating strategy or capital structure, complete the form or contact our partners directly at enquiries@alpharatingsadvisory.com or +44 7831 859000.