Bangkok--10 Sep--Standard & Poor's
The number of global issuers poised for downgrades has declined to 564, said an article published today by Standard & Poor's, titled "Downgrade Potential Across Credit Grades And Sectors (Premium)." This is 30 fewer than July's total and nearly half the 1,028 issuers a year ago.
Much of this decline has resulted from global economies and markets that are more supportive of stable--though weak--credit quality then they were a year ago. Also, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services has incorporated new information regarding the impact of the Gulf oil crisis into its ratings and outlooks on oil-related issuers. This led to Standard & Poor's revising its outlooks on a significant number of companies in the sector to stable from negative.
Potential downgrades are entities that have either a negative outlook or ratings on CreditWatch with negative implications across rating categories 'AAA' to 'B-'.
"The tally of 564 issuers poised for downgrades is down from 594 in July and is the lowest since our series began in September 2005," said Diane Vazza, head of Standard & Poor's Global Fixed Income Research.
"The integrated oil and gas and oil and gas exploration and production sectors saw the largest changes in negative bias this month--both narrowed by more than 4%," said Ms. Vazza. "Forest products and building materials followed with a 3% decline in negative bias this month."
Negative bias is the proportion of issuers with a negative outlook or ratings on CreditWatch negative to the total number of rated issuers.
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 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:
David Wargin, New York (1) 212-438-1579,
[email protected]
Analyst Contact:
Diane Vazza, New York (1) 212-438-2760