S&P adds three rising stars, but possible fallen angels still rule

By Susanna Moon

Chicago, May 26 - Standard & Poor's said it upgraded three issuers to investment grade, or BBB- and higher, from speculative grade, or BB+ and lower, since its last rising stars report, bringing the year-to-date total to seven rising stars with rated debt worth $11.41 billion.

The three issuers are Advance Auto Parts Inc., Teck Resources Ltd. and the Kingdom of Morocco.

Potential rising stars are issuers rated BB+ with either a positive outlook or ratings on CreditWatch with positive implications.

"Since our previous report, we removed three issuers from our potential rising stars list and added another three," Diane Vazza, head of S&P's global fixed-income research, said in a statement.

"These changes kept the number of issuers on our list of potential rising stars at 16 with $37.24 billion, or €30.14 billion, in rated debt. By issuer count, this is three more than the average of the past 12 months."

In contrast, the number of companies about to cross over in the opposite direction, or potential fallen angels, is at 65, with rated debt worth $219.55 billion.

The number of potential fall angels is down from the 18-year record high of 82 in March 2009.

"Fallen angel potential remains dominant over rising star potential at a ratio of 4 to 1," Vazza noted.

© 2015 Prospect News.
All content on this website is protected by copyright law in the U.S. and elsewhere. For the use of the person downloading only.
Redistribution and copying are prohibited by law without written permission in advance from Prospect News.
Redistribution or copying includes e-mailing, printing multiple copies or any other form of reproduction.