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| Frustrating times for corporate
credit |
As one debt capital markets banker remarks about the
world's corporate bond issuers: "Nobody wants to be caught on the
stage with their pants down."
It's too true - when the market and media are obsessed with the
latest accountancy scam, earnings restatement, ratings downgrade or
liquidity scare, avoiding a simultaneous bout of pant-dropping and
limelight-hogging in the corporate credit markets has been a major
concern for all finance directors since the beginning of the year.
But that was before the week beginning June 24, when a volatile
six months came to a head. First there was the news that France
Telecom had been downgraded two notches by Moody's to the brink of
junk status. Then on the Tuesday WorldCom topped this with the news
that it had overstated profits by $3.8 billion in yet another huge
accountancy scandal. What followed was something near a global
panic. Telco spreads were the...
