Research

The number of LBO-sponsored companies in Standard & Poor’s “weakest links” report shrank by half in a year, continuing the recent trend of portfolio companies saying goodbye to the report that looks at entities tagged as most in danger of debt default. The latest report, “Global Weakest Links And Default Rates: Weakest Links Increased Modestly […]

More and more companies are slipping out of S&P’s “weakest links” list, continuing the year-to-date trend. In fact, the ratings agency said in a report dated Nov. 18 that there has been a decline for 14 consecutive months. Through Nov. 11, there were 110 entities on the list with combined affected debt of $133.291 billion, […]

The number of sponsor-backed companies in Standard & Poor’s “weakest links” report has fallen since May, when Buyouts last covered the report, as the outlook for a number of buyout-backed investments has improved. Of the 133 companies on the list with combined debt of $146.07 billion, Buyouts identified 36, with combined debt of $56.1 billion, […]

The number of buyout-backed investments listed in Standard & Poor’s “weakest links” report, published in May, has declined since Buyouts last reported on the February version of the report, as the outlook for several sponsor-backed companies has improved. Of the 161 companies on the list with combined debt of $168.4 billion, Buyouts identified 41 (with […]

Fewer portfolio companies made Standard & Poor’s “weakest links” list in February, compared with three months earlier, providing further evidence that the worst may be over for buyout firms in the wake of the Great Recession. The “Global Bond Markets’ Weakest Links And Monthly Default Rates” report published in February included at least 48 portfolio […]

The number of buyout-backed companies listed in Standard & Poor’s November “weakest links” report has fallen from three months earlier, but the list of defaulters continued to grow. At least 53 of the total 251 global companies listed in the Nov. 16, 2009 “weakest links” report are portfolio companies of U.S.-based buyout shops, according to […]

The number of buyout-backed companies that made Standard & Poor’s notorious “weakest links” list fell to 59 last month, down from 60 three months earlier. Although that is generally good news, at least four of the companies leaving the list did so because they defaulted on their debt. Overall, the number of companies on S&P’s […]

On the surface, a decrease in the number of companies on the “weakest links” report produced by Standard & Poor’s sounds like progress. Unfortuntately, the ranks were thinned not by companies seeing their finanical situations improve, but by those that succumbed to default. And sponsor-backed companies were no exception. S&P’s “weakest links” list reached an […]