Debt issuance boosts McGraw-Hill - FT.com McGraw-Hill, the financial publishing company whose businesses include the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, posted a 76 per cent increase in net income from its continuing operations in the fourth quarter, driven by a surge in debt issuance. The company, which is selling off its education publishing business to focus on financial businesses, said S&P almost doubled its revenue from rating new debt, bringing in $292m in the fourth quarter. Net income from continuing businesses in the quarter was $190m, or 67 cents a share, compared with $108m, or 37 cents a share, in the same period in 2011. Revenue rose 22 per cent to $1.22bn. Corporate debt issuance has increased as companies rush to take advantage of ultra-low interest rates, and there has also been a revival in parts of the structured finance markets. S&P also makes money selling services related to its ratings, as well as on the initial ratings themselves. It made an operating profit of $246m, up 67 per cent on the same period last year. The company reiterated its intention to fight a Department of Justice lawsuit, filed last week, that accuses S&P of committing fraud by giving overly rosy ratings to billions of dollars of subprime mortgage-related instruments before the credit crisis. The suit has knocked 24 per cent off the value of the company. The DoJ is demanding $5bn in damages, and analysts have focused on the potential impact of this threat on the company's share buyback program. McGraw-Hill told shareholders it had authority remaining to buy a further 16.9m shares - about $750m at the current share price - but did not immediately indicate whether it would expand that authority, as some analysts had hoped. The group's other businesses include S&P Dow Jones indices, whose fourth-quarter profit rose 48 per cent from a year ago to $64m, thanks to the rise in exchange-traded fund assets that track its stock market indices. McGraw-Hill also owns S&P Capital IQ, a financial data firm, JD Power & Associates, a market researcher, and Platts, the commodities information business. In November 2012, it said it was selling its education business to Apollo Global Management for $2.5bn. The deal is expected to close before the end of March. Overall, including the education business, McGraw-Hill posted a net loss of $216m, or 76 cents a share, compared with a $214m, or 73 cents a share, profit in the fourth quarter of 2011. For the first time, the company issued earnings guidance for 2013 for the continuing McGraw-Hill Financial business, which at $3.10-$3.20 was more conservative than analysts" forecasts. The company spent $77m on its reorganisation in the final quarter of last year, including lawyers" fees and restructuring costs. Combined, the group reported earnings per share of $3.44 for the full year, which it said exceeded its most recent 2012 guidance of $3.35 to $3.40 per share. McGraw-Hill shares fell 0.9 per cent to $43.89 in pre-market trading in New York.