Bangkok--1 Mar--Standard & Poor's
Two issuers--Baldor Electric Co. and International Power PLC--were upgraded to investment grade since our most recent report, said an article published today by Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research. This raises the 2011 global rising star tally to five issuers with rated debt worth US$9.7 (?7.18) billion, according to the article, titled "Global Rising Stars: Mergers And Acquisitions And Divestitures Propel Four Issuers To Investment Grade In 2011."
Standard & Poor's Ratings Services upgraded four of these five issuers following corporate actions, including two mergers (MARAC Finance Ltd. and Baldor Electric Co.), one separation (Motorola Solutions), and one asset combination (International Power PLC).
"The total of five rising stars so far this year compares with just two--with US$1.1 billion, or ?0.8 billion, in rated debt--at this time in 2010," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research. "Meanwhile, the count of issuers poised for upgrades to investment grade has risen by three, to 19, accounting for US$52.7 billion, or ?39.01 billion, in rated debt."
We define potential rising stars as entities rated 'BB+' with either a positive outlook or ratings on CreditWatch with positive implications.
Since our last report, we removed one issuer from our list of potential rising stars and added four. By issuer count, the 19 potential rising stars figure exceeds the 12-month-trailing average of 17 issuers, though it's lower than the levels seen in the past few months.
In contrast, the count of entities about to cross over in the opposite direction (potential fallen angels) is at 52, with rated debt worth US$254.9 (?173.3) billion. This is down from the 18-year record high of 82 in March 2009.
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Media Contact:
Mimi Barker, New York (1) 212-438-5054,
[email protected]
Analyst Contacts:
Diane Vazza, New York (1) 212-438-2760