69: Fixed income: Forecasting ‘fallen angel’ downgrades

 The last decade has transformed the investment grade credit market. It’s not just that the size of the market has grown immensely, it’s that the average credit quality is much lower, meaning that risk of ‘fallen angel’ downgrades from investment grade to high yield rating is much higher. When the team stress-tested the investment grade market, the results were surprising: the number of expected downgrades could reach levels not seen since 2016.  We interview Madeleine about the research, why investor’s earlier fears about company over-leveraging have softened as balance sheets improved and why a hard Brexit might not drive up the number of UK downgrades as you might think. ·         Madeleine King, Co-Head of Pan-European Investment Grade Research ·         Mark Chappel, Senior Content Manager We want to hear from you! Email us at [email protected] with your thoughts on the podcast and any suggestions of the guests or types of content you’d like to see covered. This podcast is intended for investment professionals, and shouldn’t be shared with a non-professional audience. This podcast should not be taken as an invitation to deal in Legal & General investments. Any views expressed during this recording belong to the individuals and are based on market conditions at the time of recording, and do not reflect the views of Legal & General Investment Management. Legal & General Investment Management is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Legal & General Investment Management, One Coleman Street, London, EC2R 5AA. Register in England no. 2091894. All rights reserved. No part of this audio may be reproduced in whole or in part without the prior written consent of Legal & General Investment Management.