Fallen angels stay low at 20 year to date but at-risk list grows, S&P says

New York, Oct. 15 - The number of fallen angels so far this year is well below the year-ago total but the number of issuers at risk of downgrade to junk has risen, according to Standard & Poor's.

For 2004 through Oct. 11, 20 issuers have seen their ratings cut from investment grade, an increase of one from S&P's last report on Aug. 25. The downgrade affected Converium Holdings (North America) Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Swiss reinsurer Converium Holding AG.

By comparison, there were 47 fallen angels at the same point in 2003 and 63 in the comparable period of 2002.

S&P noted that the current count is the lowest since 1998.

However S&P's list of issuers at risk of downgrade to junk increased to 48 with $69.5 billion of rated debt as of Oct. 14, up from 46 issuers in August an increased of $3.4 billion of debt.

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