(Yicai Global) April 4 -- China Chengxin International Credit Rating, the country's largest ratings agency, has dismissed a report that claimed Moody's Investors Service intends to take a controlling stake.

Chengxin has not signed any further equity transfer agreement with Moody's, state-backed 21st Century Business Herald reported yesterday, citing Yan Yan, president of the Beijing-based company.

New York-based Moody's, which already owns 30 percent of Chengxin, plans to spend CNY15 billion (USD2.2 billion) for a majority stake to secure a license to rate debt instruments in China's interbank bond market, the same business news daily reported on March 30. 

Top US ratings firms have been increasingly eyeing the Chinese market since the nation started easing foreign ownership restrictions last year. S&P Global Ratings set up a China unit in January and got an interbank bond-rating license. Fitch Ratings is still waiting for such a permit.

Chengxin has an estimated 50 percent market share in China, while Moody's, Standard & Poor's, and Fitch Ratings have between them cornered over 90 percent of the US.  

Editor: Emmi Laine