Bangkok--29 Sep--Standard & Poor's
The number of issuers poised for upgrades increased by 13 this month to a total of 174 issuers globally, said an article published Friday, September 25 by Standard & Poor's, titled "Upgrade Potential Across Credit Grades And Sectors (Premium)."
"The 174 potential upgrades is 95 issuers less than the total recorded at this time in 2008," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research Group. "But, this month is the first time that the number of potential upgrades has exceeded the trailing-12-month average in nearly two years."
Potential upgrades are defined as issuers that have either a positive outlook or ratings on CreditWatch with positive implications across rating categories 'AA+' to 'B-'.
Global downgrade potential also has eased slightly, to 921 issuers, compared with 955 globally in our previous report. The all-time high of potential downgrades was 1,028 issuers in April 2009.
Telecommunications was the only sector whose current positive bias exceeded its long-term average three months ago. Since then, its current positive bias has remained below its long-term average, particularly as a result of a handful of materialized upgrades and the assignment of stable outlooks. Utilities, another sector on the fringe of its long-term average positive bias, have had a similar experience, shifting to stable from positive since early this year.
The standard version of this article is part of our standard Global Fixed Income Research content. The premium version contains expanded analysis of the article's most significant points, typically broken out by sector and region. Also in the premium version are in-depth charts and tables, the underlying data of which are available for download. Ratings information can also be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Ratings in the left navigation bar, select Find a Rating. Members of the media may request a copy of this report by contacting the media representative provided.
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