Europe, Middle East & Africa

Highlights

• 14 Mar 2013
  • Record European high-yield issuance despite weakening corporate credit quality
    With capital markets so bullish, we reinforce our message that credit quality in Europe continues to deteriorate, as evidenced by our downgrade/upgrade ratio. Causes of the weakening credit quality remain poor economic growth, high unemployment, private sector deleveraging, constrained credit growth, fiscal drag and weak consumer and business confidence. Ongoing political events in Italy remind that fundamental problems in the euro area are still to be resolved...Full Report​​
• 13 Feb 2013
  • Water Scarcity to Raise Capex and Operating Costs, Heighten Operational Risks
    Water scarcity and broader environmental risks will continue to push up development and operating costs in the global mining industry as these trends become more pronounced. As the consequences of poor environmental risk management are likely to increasingly lead to production stoppages, protests, fines and license withdrawals, we expect to place greater analytical emphasis on rated mining companies' environmental policies and risk management practices in our credit assessments... Full Report​​​​​​​
• 12 Feb 2013
  • Telecoms companies' credit positive hybrid issuance does not guarantee current ratings
    While the issuance of hybrid debt by Telecom Italia S.p.A and Telekom Austria AG could have some positive credit implications, hybrid bonds are not a solution to the underlying challenges facing these and other European telecoms service providers. Indeed the issuance of hybrids shows that some companies have begun to exhaust internal options to protect their financial profile and need to revert to external options, reflecting their limited financial flexibility... Full Report​​​​