The Sunday Mail
THE danger of stimulus-induced bubbles is starting to play out in the market for energy-company debt.
Since early 2010, energy producers have raised US$550 billion of new bonds and loans as the US Federal Reserve held borrowing costs near zero, according to Deutsche Bank AG.
With oil prices plunging, investors are questioning the ability of some issuers to meet their debt obligations. Research firm CreditSights Inc. predicts the default rate for energy junk bonds will double to eight percent next year.
“Anything that becomes a mania — it ends badly,” said Tim Gramatovich, who helps manage more than US$800 million as chief investment officer of Santa Barbara, California-based Peritus Asset Management. “And this is a mania”.
The Fed’s decision to keep benchmark interest rates at record lows for six years has encouraged investors to funnel cash into speculative-grade securities to generate returns, raising concern that risks were being overlooked.
A report from Moody’s Investors Service this week found that investor protections in corporate debt are at an all-time low, while average yields on junk bonds were recently lower than what investment-grade companies were paying before the credit crisis.
Borrowing costs for energy companies have sky-rocketed in the past six months as West Texas Intermediate crude, the US benchmark, has dropped 44 percent to US$60,46 a barrel since reaching this year’s peak of US$107,26 in June. — Bloomberg.
