In this respect,
investment-grade corporates are generally better-positioned to meet their refinancing requirements since they have amassed larger cash cushions compared with high-yield issuers," says Jean-Michel Carayon, Senior Vice President and co-author of the report.
Although securitized real estate still accounts for less than 10 percent of all
investment-grade real estate, the impact of real estate investment trusts (REITs), commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) and publicly-traded operating companies on investment and performance evaluation was a dominant theme in many of the presentations given by industry experts at the Institute of Real Estate Management's (IREM) recently completed 14th annual Asset Management Symposium, held in San Diego.
We have to stay investment grade, so we have to watch our debt to total capital -- our capitalization ratio -- and we want to be careful that our coverage ratio keeps us in
investment-grade territory.
Under normal market conditions, the Fund seeks to achieve its objective by investing at least 80% of its total assets in municipal bonds of
investment-grade quality and will normally invest substantially all of its total assets in municipal bonds of
investment-grade quality.
Fitch Ratings has cut
investment-grade debt ratings of Comerica Inc (NYSE: CMA), citing that the bank's profitability was increasingly threatened by higher credit costs and the recession.
A record $4.7 billion also was raised in unsecured debt, which is a result of the higher number of
investment-grade ratings many REITs have received from the major rating agencies this past year.
Four loans, representing 31.6% of the pool, have
investment-grade credit opinions.
KSM can invest up to 50% of assets in municipal securities that, at the time of purchase, are rated below
investment-grade quality or that are unrated but judged to be of comparable quality by the investment adviser.
London: Fitch Ratings report shows the greatest differential in the
investment-grade department stores in the sample.
The impact on
investment-grade entities has been more modest than for speculative-grade issuers, which have seen cumulative multi-notch downgrades.
Five-year
investment-grade maturities rose 8% to $36 billion, while speculative-grade maturities increased 32% to $32 billion, as pre-existing
investment-grade and high-yield maturities rolled into the five-year window.
By contrast, lower-yielding
investment-grade bonds in those same markets are on track for their longest stretch of monthly gains on record.
