http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2009/03/13/53580/cds-report-better-tone-no-help-to-insurers/
CDS report: Better tone no help to insurers
Posted by Paul J Davies on Mar 13 12:25.
European credit markets saw a strong decline in the cost of protecting many companies against default on Friday as the week’s rally in equity markets brought a bout of optimism back to debt investors too, although some of Europe’s biggest insurers continued to suffer in spite of improvements in their stock prices.
BMW led the credit market tighter in spite of news that European car sales dropped 18 per cent in February. Its credit default swaps were 17.5 basis points lower at 397.5bp, which means it costs €17,500 less per year to insure €10m of BMW bonds over five years. VW was close behind, dropping 16.1bp to 274.0bp, while Valeo, the parts maker, Renault and Daimler were all much better.
Registrations fell to 968,159 vehicles last month from 1.19m a year earlier, the Brussels-based European Automobile Manufacturers’ Association said. According to Bloomberg, it was the sharpest February drop since the organisation began recording data in 1990.
At the other end of the market, Aviva saw a sharp rise in its cost of protection, up 28.3bp to 500.0bp as its shares also declined after Morgan Stanley cut their price target for the UK insurer. Its CDS has now roughly doubled since the start of the month.
Aegon, the Dutch insurer, was not far behind, adding 19.2bp to 522.5bp, which means its CDS has more than doubled since mid-February, and was closely followed by Swiss Re, which added 16.7bp to 790.0bp.
Swiss Re released on Friday details of the $2.5bn in convertible bonds it sold to Warren Buffett. The reinsurer will pay a 12 per cent coupon on the debt, but insisted it would be able to buy them back before they can convert into a large stake in the company in three years time.
The market broadly was better off, with the main iTraxx index of investment grade companies about 4.2bp tighter in late morning trade at 192.0bp, while the Crossover list of mostly junk-rated names was 5.4bp tighter at 1079.9bp.