Announcement: Moody's: EMEA Corporates: Credit Stabilisation Continues
Madrid, August 04, 2010 -- Current rating trends continue to indicate gradual stabilisation of corporate ratings with the likelihood of further reduction in the number of downgrades during the balance of 2010, said Moody's Investors Service in a new report.
"The number of corporate families that were downgraded in the second quarter of 2010 fell to 11 compared with 19 in the first quarter. This is a sharp improvement from second quarter 2009, when there were 79 downgrades. While credit conditions continue to slowly improve on an overall basis, the number of upgrades is not expected to balance the number of downgrades in the second half of 2010, because some corporates still face downward rating pressure linked to economic weaknesses, said Jean-Michel Carayon", Group Credit Officer for EMEA. "A number of companies still need to further improve to restore their financial ratios to the level that existed prior to the recession", he added.
Of Moody's-rated non-financial corporate issuers, 25.4% had a negative outlook or were under review for downgrade at the end June 2010, down from 40.4% as at 30 June 2009.
"The negative bias in rating outlooks is diminishing and this is partly due to stabilization of our industry sector outlooks," said Moody's analyst Lola Cavanilles. "We expect liquidity to remain at satisfactory levels and default rates to continue on a downward trajectory at least through the rest of the year," Cavanilles added.
Although most industry sector outlooks have stabilised over the past few months, there are still some challenges ahead for industries such as the steel industry, which could suffer from the tepid pace of recovery in economic growth, the report said.
No rated corporates in EMEA defaulted in the first half of 2010, compared to 15 defaults in the first half of 2009. Among European speculative-grade issuers, the dollar-weighted speculative-grade bond default rate fell to 3.4% in the second quarter from 5.8% in the first quarter of 2010.
According to Moody's, default rates in this downturn have remained well below the peak level reached in the 2002 credit downturn. The report cites differences in conditions going into the 2008-2009 downturn, including a lower incidence of developmental or unproven business models, moderate refinancing needs and the fact that corporates reacted quickly to reduce capital expenditures and cut costs.
The full report, "EMEA Corporates: Credit Stabilisation Continues" is available at www.moodys.com.
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Madrid
Lola Cavanilles
Analyst
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's Investors Service Espana, S.A.
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Paris
Jean-Michel Carayon
Senior Vice President
Corporate Finance Group
Moody's France SAS
JOURNALISTS: 44 20 7772 5456
SUBSCRIBERS: 44 20 7772 5454
Moody's Investors Service Espana, S.A.
Barbara de Braganza, 2
Madrid 28004
Spain
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