JEDDAH — Kuwait, Abu Dhabi and UAE are the highest rated EM sovereigns at Aa2, but overall, Africa and Middle East region has the largest number of EM sovereigns rated below investment grade.
Moody’s said in its inaugural edition of its Emerging Markets Chartbook showcasing Moody’s-rated coverage from 101 emerging markets and more than 1,500 rated entities across non-financial corporates and financial institutions released on Tuesday.
“Our Global Emerging Markets (EM) Chartbook is a compilation of data and insights into the universe of EM sovereigns, non-financial corporates and financial institutions in EMs globally, and high-yield non-financial corporates that Moody’s rates,” said Laura Acres, a Moody’s Managing Director in the Corporate Finance Group.
“EMs are increasingly forming a larger part of the investment space, and Moody’s chartbook provides investors with comparative data across key EM regions and groupings such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) and Colombia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South Africa (CIVETS),” said Philipp Lotter, a Moody’s Managing Director and the head of Moody’s Corporate Finance Group in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Since 2013, Emerging Markets (Ems) have seen issuances of about $2.6 trillion of Eurobonds placed by sovereigns, sub-sovereigns, corporates, financial institutions, infrastructure and project finance entities.
The number of rated emerging market (EM) sovereigns has been increasing since 2004, largely because of African countries obtaining ratings,
LATAM and APAC have the highest number of rated EM corporates and financial institutions; while Africa/Middle East and Emerging Europe are dominated by financial institutions.
The number of high-yield (HY) EM corporate ratings is growing, led by China and Brazil, with property and agriculture sectors having the most visible footprint.
Changing the sovereign ceilings, ratings and/or outlooks in Russia, Brazil and Turkey had a prominent impact on the rating dynamics of High Yield EM corporate issuers in the respective regions from 2016 to H1 2018. — SG
