The COVID-19 crisis has driven a wave of downgrades across the Asia Pacific (ex-Japan), with ratings on 59 high-yield names lowered between 1 March and April to date by global agencies S&P, Moody’s and Fitch, mainly due to the pandemic.

The three agencies have made a total of 44 HYdowngrade announcements so far in April, already exceeding the 40 made last month. These numbers compare with just four in January and then 12 in February's virus concerns started spreading. The average monthly downgrade announcement from the three agencies together was around 10 in 2019.

Of the total downgrade announcements so far on April, 18 were from Fitch, 17 from S&P, and 9 from Moody’s. In March, Moody’s lowered 21 HY companies, followed by S&P at 14 and Fitch at five.

Between 1 March and April-to-date, 17 Chinese HYcredits have been downgraded by at least one of the rating agencies, followed by Indian and Indonesian names at 14 and 10, respectively.

A few companies lost their investment-grade status during the period. These include Indian non-bank financial company HeroFinCorp, which was lowered to BB+ from BBB- by S&P on 21 April, as well as HongKong-listed financial-leasing company Far East Horizon and Chinese furniture retailer Red Star Macalline Group, both of which were downgraded to BB+ from BBB- by Fitch on 7 April.

To see a list of the rating actions, click here for APAC’s momentum monitor.

Jason Huang-Jones APAC Data Manager Debtwire