A quick hit from Felix Salmon at Axios:
90% of the debt issued out
of private equity shops is rated B2 or lower, according to a new Moody's
report. That's not just junk-rated, it's even worse than that.
If you look at junk-rated companies
that aren’t sponsored by PE firms, only 40% of them have debt rated
that low. Moody's credit-rating scale has 10 "investment-grade" ratings,
from Aaa to Baa3. The bottom 11 ratings, from Ba1 to C, are considered
"speculative," or junk. A B2 rating is deep into junk status and means
there's a very significant chance you'll end up in default....
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