| When Standard & Poor’s downgraded Mannesmann from single-A to BBB+ on November 24 following the German company’s bid to buy the UK mobile-phone operator Orange, it caused howls of pain in the offices of bond fund managers all over euroland. Many had considered familiar names like Mannesmann to be the safe way to transform their government-bond holdings into a credit portfolio. Instead, they realized that Europe’s soaring M&A activity can hurt creditors of higher-grade companies. |
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