S&P, Moody's report debt-rating boosts led reductions in '93
NEW YORK -- Two large ratings services said the number of debt-rating upgrades exceeded downgrades in 1993 for the first time in almost a decade, with the banking sector showing particularly strong credit-quality improvement.</br></br>Standard & Poor's Corp. attributed the gains to lower interest rates and corporate belt-tightening. Moody's Investors Service Inc. said it expects speculative-grade ratings to lead the positive trend in 1994.</br></br>S&P said that for the first time since 1980, the number of corporate upgrades outpaced downgrades. Upgrades, the agency reported, totaled 343, compared with 263 downgrades. In dollar volume however, ratings were lowered on $243 billion of debt and raised on $130 billion because the ratings of several large issuers were lowered, S&P said.</br></br>Companies that saw their ratings lowered include General Motors Corp., International Business Machines Corp. and American Express Co., S&P noted.</br></br>Moody's also reported a higher volume of upgrades for the first time in nine years. In 1993, Moody's raised ratings of 163 companies, while lowering ratings of 154 corporations. This compared with 227 downgrades in 1992 and 136 upgrades.