Bangkok--8 Feb--Standard & Poor's
In an article published today titled, "Global Potential Upgrades: Fewer Issuers On Watch For Near-Term Upgrades," Standard & Poor's notes that the number of entities poised for potential upgrades declined slightly, to 273, in January. This is nine less than in the previous month and 72 more than the total for January 2010. Standard & Poor's defines potential upgrades as issuers that have either a positive outlook or ratings on CreditWatch with positive implications across rating categories 'AA+' to 'B-'.
"Fifty-three issuers, or 19% of those on last month's list, were subsequently upgraded," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research. "Five of these issuers remain on the list of potential upgrades. Since our previous report, we added 59 issuers to our list of potential upgrades and removed 68."
The composition of the potential upgrades list changed, as the number of issuers on CreditWatch with positive implications declined from 60 to 42. The ratio of issuers on the list with positive outlooks to those on CreditWatch positive has increased to 5.5 to 1 from 3.7 to 1. A rise in this ratio implies that it may take longer for the upgrades to occur.
"CreditWatch status and outlooks can be strong predictors of ratings behavior, both in the aggregate and when broken out by rating category, region, or sector," said Ms. Vazza. "A positive outlook or ratings on CreditWatch with positive implications are good leading indicators of upgrades."
The report is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect on the Global Credit Portal at www.globalcreditportal.com. If you are not a RatingsDirect subscriber, you may purchase a copy of the report by calling (1) 212-438-7280 or sending an e-mail to
[email protected]. Ratings information can also be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site by using the Ratings search box located in the left column at www.standardandpoors.com. Members of the media may request a copy of this report by contacting the media representative provided.
Media Contact:
Mimi Barker, New York (1) 212-438-5054,
[email protected]
Analyst Contacts:
Diane Vazza, New York (1) 212-438-2760