By Anoop Agrawal http://www.bloomberg.com
Indian corporate debt ratings are deteriorating at the fastest pace since 2010 amid a cash crunch created to buoy the rupee and a deepening economic slowdown.
Billionaire Anil Ambani’s Reliance Infrastructure Ltd., which holds 69 percent in a venture building a metro network in Mumbai, and Apollo Tyres Ltd., which plans India’s largest acquisition in North America, were among 478 companies that had their rankings cut in the last six months at Crisil Ltd., the local unit of Standard & Poor’s. Only 417 firms were upgraded, a ratio of 0.87 against downgrades that was the lowest since September 2010.
Corporate bond sales fell to a five-year low last quarter as theReserve Bank of India boosted interest rates and curbed funding for banks to arrest a currency slide, even as economists predicted the slowest growth in a decade will worsen. The yield on five-year top-rated company notes rose 97 basis points in the first half of the fiscal year that started April 1 to 9.94 percent. Similar rates climbed 48 basis points to 5.28 percent in China. More info
