NEW YORK, Feb 27 (Reuters) - The number of companies at an
increased risk of defaulting on their debt globally rose
slightly in February, though credit conditions were essentially
unchanged from January, Kamakura Corp, a risk management
information provider, said on Friday.
Kamakura's index of "troubled" public companies increased
0.1 percentage point in February from January, to 23.2 percent
of the global public company universe.
A company is considered "troubled" when its default
probability is in excess of 1 percent. The index hit a high of
28 percent in September 2001.
Companies with the largest increase in short-term default
risk included Chemtura Corp , ArvinMeritor Inc ,
Belo Corp , Alcatel-Lucent and Office Depot Inc
, Kamakura said.
Companies with a default probability of more than 20
percent fell 0.1 percentage point to 2.7 percent in February,
while companies with a 10-to-20 percent default risk dropped
0.2 percentage point to 2.8 percent, the company said.
Companies with a 5-to-10 percent default risk rose 0.1
percentage point to 4.3 percent in the month, and companies
with a 1-to-5 percent default probability increased 0.2 percent
to 13.3 percent, Kamakura said.
(Reporting by Karen Brettell;)
((karen.brettell@thomsonreuters.com; +1 646 223 6274; Reuters
Messaging: karen.brettell.reuters.com@reuters.net ))
Keywords: DEFAULT KAMKURA/
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