Download FitchRating’s Report here.
Downgrades greatly outweighed upgrades in 1Q24 as high interest rates affected the FCF and financial flexibility of issuers in lower rating categories. This quarter, Fitch recorded 14 downgrades and four upgrades. The downgrades included seven defaults as well as three companies moving from the ‘B’ category to the ‘CCC’ category. Fitch expects the negative rating skew to continue as issuers wrestle with persistently high interest rates.
Latest news
Spread per turn of leverage tightened 5% for lower middle market
Lenders benefited from better risk-adjusted pricing for larger middle-market and large-cap deals in the third quarter.
Middle market debt held by BDCs vs High yield vs Treasury yields
The blue line shows BIZD’s dividend yield rising 130bps in a month to 12.9% as of 22 October, although most…
Single-B loan pricing faces renewed pressure in October; 150 bps gap to double-Bs
We noted in our monthly leveraged loan coverage how average new-issue institutional loan yields moved somewhat counterintuitively: single-Bs tightened 14bp…