European high-yield bonds

In 2001, Fitch Ratings launched a default index dedicated to the emerging European high-yield bond market. The index is a par based index and was created using the same methodology Fitch employs for its US high-yield default series (see Exhibit 28.2). In particular, in order to... 

Fitch used the market prices of defaulted bonds one month after default as a proxy for recovery value. The growth of a secondary market for European high-yield bonds made this analysis possible but ultimately the various bankruptcy jurisdictions in Europe will determine how bondholders will fare. The outcome of these filings will be very meaningful for the development of the market going forward because each country has its own bankruptcy laws and not all are favorable to bondholders. Some jurisdictions, such as France for example, strongly... 

Fallen angels are securities that started out as investment grade bonds and have ended up, or are expected to end up in high-yield territory, such as Marconi and KPN. The former rose substantially before the downgrade to high yield, as it formed a big part of the European high-yield index, and high-yield investors had no choice but to buy the name and bid up the price. 

Given this new landscape, in 2001, Fitch Ratings created a par based default index specific to the European high-yield market. The objective of this chapter is to compare and contrast default and recovery patterns across the two markets in order to give global bond investors and European investors, in particular, historical and current benchmarks for measuring credit risk. 

---