State-Backed Loans Are a Financing and Not an Automatic Right

Put in place by the French Government to offer companies easy access to COVID-19 special financial support, the banks are not entirely comfortable with some of the terms and conditions of the measures. They are exercising their normal due diligence, as they would do with any credit applications. Treasury departments should therefore not spend time thinking about the optimal financing structure in the context of more or less rapid economic recovery.

Large caps stay out of the special financing arrangements put in place by governments

Europe’s largest companies are staying away from the special financing arrangements put in place by governments . In France, even before the presentation of the state-guaranteed loan (Prêt Garanti par l’Etat – “PGE”), several large caps had already secured additional liquidity to get them through the first few months of the crisis, such as Airbus, which announced the signing of a €15 billion syndicated loan on 23 March. Other such raising included Schlumberger with a €1.5bn Revolving Credit Facility and Diageo, who launched and priced a USD $2.5bn bond offering.

Commodity Traders – What is the Threshold for Liquidity Source Diversification?

Humanity is shaped by its crisis. So is trading, as old as humanity as well. In order to survive, trading will continuously have to adapt to demand and supply shocks, logistical challenges, increase in risk premia and last but not least liquidity available. In fact liquidity has always been and will continue to be the number one risk consideration for any trading company.

Rating Agencies – Between Speed and Precipitation

In the crisis, the credit rating agencies have not all reacted in the same way. An analysis of the three main rating agencies actions since the end of February, shows that Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has been much quicker than Moody’s and Fitch in revising down their views – REPORT

Single-B Issuers Under Scrutiny by Rating Agencies

While credit rating agencies have not yet changed their central scenarios for credit default rates, they appear to be growing more nervous in the face of changes in the economic cycle and the resurgence of volatility against a backdrop of greater geopolitical uncertainty.

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