Bangkok--29 Feb--Standard & Poor's The U.S. distress ratio accelerated by five percentage points to 16.9% in February, from 11.1% last month, according to an article published yesterday by Standard & Poor's. The report, titled "U.S. Distressed Debt Monitor: Largest Monthly Gain In Nearly A Decade (Premium)," says that the ratio is at its highest level since June 2003, and significantly above its 1.0% level one year ago. "The increase in distress accompanies the continued widening in speculative-grade bond spreads, which rose nearly 80 basis points in a month's time to 714 basis points on Feb. 15, from 637 basis points on Jan. 15," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research Group. "The leveraged-loan market also experienced a rapid advance in distress in January. The S&P/LSTA Leveraged-Loan Index distress ratio shot up to 6.9% in January, from 3.2% in December. This is one of the highest monthly rates in this series and the highest reading since March 2003. For the past two years, the distress ratio has been near or below 1%." With more than a quarter of all of its speculative-grade by number of issues as a percentage of all distressed credits, the media and entertainment sector dominated at 27%, with retail/restaurants and consumer products both following at 11% and 10.1%, respectively. Based on debt volume, the media and entertainment sector had the largest exposure, constituting over a third of the total debt affected, followed by telecommunications with 13% of total debt affected. Ms. Vazza added, "As of Feb. 15, distressed issues cumulatively affected debt worth $104.1 billion, nearly $40 billion higher than in January." The report is available to RatingsDirect subscribers who have upgraded their package to include the Global Fixed Income Research add-on. RatingsDirect is the real-time Web-based source for Standard & Poor's credit ratings, research, and risk analysis, at www.ratingsdirect.com. If you are not a RatingsDirect subscriber with the Global Fixed Income Research add-on, please contact your local Standard & Poor's representative or [email protected] for further information. Ratings information can also be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Credit Ratings in the left navigation bar, select Find a Rating, then Credit Ratings Search. Members of the media may request a copy of this report by contacting the media representative provided.