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Spica International Gets Rating of the Year 2003 LJUBLJANA, 16 January 2004
Credit assessment house I d.o.o. poslovne informacije of
Ljubljana and the multi-national credit assessment house Dun
& Bradstreet have given the Rating of the Year award for
2003 to Spica International. The award was received by the
three companies with the highest credit rating of the 50
candidates selected by I d.o.o. from Slovenian companies in
the highest bracket of credit rating.
This is the eighth successive year that I d.o.o. and Dun
& Bradstreet have given the award for the highest credit
rating, under the patronage of the Mayor of Ljubljana. The
award was presented to Spica International by Michelle Potts,
a representative of Dun & Bradstreet, and Marko Batista,
director of I d.o.o.
"We are proud to have received the Rating of the Year
award for 2003, particularly as we were among the selected
candidates in previous years," said Tone Stanovnik,
director of Spica International, "To us the award means
recognition that we are making the right business decisions
and recognition for the culture we are fostering at the
company, and has given us real encouragement as we try to
succeed in an increasingly demanding market."
The credit rating is an analytical summary of a longer
report on the company, and is decided by payment discipline,
the liquidity situation, trends in business, the balance
sheets for the last three years, actual performance, changes
in capital and certain balance sheet items, and the company's
position in the market.
"We know that Slovenia's credit ratings are in the
highest quality bracket and reach the level seen in the
information societies of the European Union. We are therefore
convinced that once Slovenia joins the EU we can be a
trustworthy partner," added Stanovnik.
Companies make decisions about the level of trust they show
in their customers and business partners based on credit
assessment information. It is used to help make decisions on
payment terms, credit, insurance and the purchase of debts.
Slovenian users of credit assessment information include the
largest export companies, most of the major banks, insurance
agencies and the state administration.
About Rating of the Year
For eight years running the Rating of the Year award has
been presented to three Slovenian companies by the credit
assessment houses Dun & Bradstreet and I d.o.o. poslovne
informacije. The purpose of the award is to encourage
reliability and safe business practice with exemplary
discipline in the payment of the financial liabilities taken
on. The award is in the form of a sculpture in walnut wood
with a stylised A1 inscription. A1 is the highest credit
rating that an analyst can award a company when drawing up
credit assessment information. A is the highest bracket of
capital, and 1 represents the best assessment of the risk in
doing business with the company in question. Any company
checking the reliability of a partner will have full
confidence in a company with this rating and will approve the
most favourable terms for doing business with it. Banks will
be happy to approve credit for the company, as a loan
represents a safe investment, and insurance agencies will ask
for the lowest level of premiums.
Criteria for Awarding Rating of the Year
The first condition for a company to be chosen as a
candidate for the award is that someone somewhere investigates
it. Several thousand of the most active companies in Slovenia
come into consideration. The second condition is that,
according to the available information, the company settles
its debts by the agreed deadlines. From among such companies
those whose capital is in the highest bracket are selected, as
it is on the commercial wellbeing of these very companies that
the nation's economy most depends. A further condition is that
the company is awarded the best risk factor and that it has
not yet received the award. In Slovenia there were 275
companies with the best risk factor of 1 among those assessed.
Those companies who despite excellent results are not assured
of good long-term prospects because of conditions on the
market or environmental risks are eliminated. From the
companies that remain, a truly excellent credit rating is
assessed on the basis of financial indicators, trends in
performance and the opinions of financial experts, while
journalistic opinion provides soft information.
About Dun & Bradstreet
Dun & Bradstreet is a multinational information company
based in the USA whose basic line of business is independently
investigating the reliability of companies. Via the internet
it offers users credit assessment information on 70 million
companies from all the countries of the world. With its
century-long innovative approach and concern for top-quality
personnel, D&B today covers the majority of the world
market for credit assessment information.
About I d.o.o.
I d.o.o. poslovne informacije was founded in 1990 and, as
D&B's representative, is the oldest credit assessment
house in Slovenia. I d.o.o. draws up credit assessment
information for several thousand Slovenian companies each
year, based on D&B technology and tools. The information
is used primarily by foreign companies and now by more and
more Slovenian companies.
About Spica International
Spica International d.o.o. specialises in the development,
creation and integration of technologies for managing time and
space, and the company's basic line of business is automatic
identification systems, having been involved in this area
since the end of the eighties. Spica solutions encompass the
registration of work hours and entrance surveillance, mobile
computing and printing, and barcode scanning.
Spica International has an extensive network of authorised
partners inside and outside Slovenia, and has subsidiaries
in Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia. It is a
member of numerous international associations in its field of
work, and was awarded the ISO 9001 quality certificate for its
entire operation in 1995.
Additional Information
Spica International
Tone Stanovnik, director
Pot k sejmišču 33 1000 Ljubljana Slovenia
tel: 386 1 5680800
fax: 386 1 5680888
e-mail info@spica.si
website: www.spica.com |
