Dove posso trovare una guida chiara ai rating delle societa' emittenti obbligazioni? In particolare vorrei delle notizie sulla solvibilita' di Ford MT Grazie

Risposta:
La sua e' una domanda molto interessante.
Non esiste una guida "chiara" per i rating che possa essere agevolmente letta dai risparmiatori non professionisti.
I seguenti siti che le segnalo sono quelli delle principali agenzie di rating internazionali.
AM Best Company - clicca qui

Fitch Ratings - clicca qui

Moody's - clicca qui

Standard & Poor's - clicca qui

A parte la difficolta' delle lingua inglese, e' necessario comprendere i termini della rating.
Prendiamo, ad esempio, il caso dell'obbligazione che interessa a lei.
Se va nel sito della Standardandpoors e inserisce la parola "ford" nel motore di ricerca trovera' un comunicato nel quale la societa' il 7 Marzo 2003 ha assegnato il rating "tripla B" alla FORD (alleghiamo alla riposta il comunicato).
Cosa significia "BBB"? Significa che la Ford e' giudicata un creditore abbastanza affidabile sul quale poter investire ma non al massimo dell'affidabilita'.
La "BBB" e' la soglia minima di affidabilita' per ritenere un titolo obbligazionario come da investimento e non da speculazione.
Allo stato attuale, quindi, il titolo e' considerato da investimento.
Purtroppo, come puo' vedere, un tecnico dispone di moltissime informazioni, ma queste informazioni non sono di facile comprensione per un comune risparmiatore.
Anche per questo "Investire Informati" offre questo servizio gratuito di risposte ai nostri lettori.
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NEW YORK (Standard & Poor's) March 7, 2003--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services today affirmed its ratings on Ford Motor Co.
(BBB/Negative/A-2), Ford Motor Credit Co. (Ford Credit), and all other related entities. The affirmation is in response to market rumors suggesting that a rating downgrade is pending. Debt and preferred securities outstanding totaled $168 billion at Dec. 31, 2002.
The ratings on Ford reflect the company's fair competitive position as the world's second-largest automaker and are predicated on substantial improvement in financial performance from recent poor levels. "Since early 2002, Ford has been pursuing its extensive revitalization plan, and progress has been made in certain regards--for example, in enhancing product quality measures and improving assembly capacity utilization," said credit analyst Scott Sprinzen.
Ford's key strengths remain its substantial market shares in the relatively high-margin U.S. sport utility and pickup segments, and its presence in the global luxury vehicle market, where it competes through its Premier Automotive Group (PAG), which includes its Jaguar, Land Rover, Volvo, and Lincoln brands. Yet, Ford's disproportionate reliance on the earnings contributions of its sport utilities and pickups heightens risks, particularly given the prospect of secular erosion in the profit margins associated with these products due to the proliferation of competing entries and industrywide increase in production capacity.
Ford's captive finance unit, Ford Credit, is a significant earnings contributor. Although Ford Credit's credit losses have been high by historical and industry norms, asset quality should benefit over the next few years from recent actions to tighten underwriting standards.
Amid the erosion in Ford's overall credit quality and the turmoil surrounding the company, Ford Credit's debt spreads have widened in the past two years and been extraordinarily volatile at times. However, Ford Credit has been able to contain the increase in its borrowing costs by using the ABS market as its primary funding source. The extent of Ford Credit's dependence on the ABS market is a cause for concern, given the lack of better funding flexibility this reflects. Standard & Poor's assumes that as Ford turns around its automotive business, Ford Credit's debt spreads will return to a level commensurate with the rating, enabling Ford Credit to take a more balanced approach to funding. Standard & Poor's does not put emphasis on Ford Credit's dependence on ABS as a disadvantage to the ultimate recovery prospects of unsecured debtholders: Substantial high-quality assets remain on Ford Credit's balance sheet, and the ABS transactions reduce the amount of unsecured borrowing that would otherwise be required.
Despite the negative outlook, the current ratings reflect the assumption that as a result of its restructuring measures, Ford will be able to continue showing broadly improving financial results in its global automotive operations, even if industry conditions in the U.S.
deteriorate further. In this regard, Standard & Poor's views Ford's achieving management's target of breakeven pretax automotive earnings in 2003 (which would compare with a loss of $622 million in 2002) as an important benchmark. If Standard & Poor's comes to believe that Ford is not meeting this objective, the long-term and short-term ratings would be reassessed.