Читать книгу The Sterling Bonds and Fixed Income Handbook - Mark Glowrey - Страница 35

You may have your own knowledge and views on a company’s ability to repay debt – perhaps gained from your experience in the equity market. Alternatively, you can view the credit rating assigned to issuers by several of the credit rating agencies, who deploy considerable resources to assess both the issuer and the individual bond.

It is in the interest of bond issuers to obtain ratings from the credit rating agencies. Without this stamp of approval from an independent body, the bonds will be hard to sell. Indeed, most institutional investors will be unable to purchase a bond that does not have a rating. There are two main international credit ratings agencies, namely Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. A simple first stage check on a bond’s quality will be to reference such ratings.

Credit ratings are the criteria used by most banks and fund managers when establishing the suitability of a bond as an investment but, remember, situations change quickly, and so can credit ratings. Such ratings, and the change thereof, will be announced via RNS (the Stock Exchange’s Regulated News Service) and other publicly accessible news media, but bear in mind that the ratings agencies are notorious for being lagging indicators of credit quality. It is likely that the price of the bond will have moved some time before the change in rating.

You can look up the rating of most bond issuers on www.moodys.com and www.standardandpoors.com. An honourable mention should also go to Fitch IBCA (www.fitchratings.com). Private investors are able to register for free on these websites and view the allocated ratings.