S&P grade watch

Although a definite decision hasn’t been made on Wall Street, Barbados’ sovereign credit rating, BB+, could be downgraded in the months ahead by Standard & Poor’s (S&P).
That, in essence, was the message which S&P, the Wall Street credit rating giant, sent yesterday to the financial markets in a special report on credit trends and potential sovereign and private firm downgrades in the Caribbean and Latin America. But Barbados wasn’t alone on the list of countries and private firms facing a possible downgrade of their ratings. The Bahamas, Brazil, El Salvador and Venezuela were listed because of negative outlooks on their ratings.
Sagicor, perhaps the Caribbean’s leading financial services conglomerate, has also made the list, along with four Brazilian banks; a media and entertainment company in Panama; a consumer products firm in Peru; a petrol company in Venezuela; and a forest products and building materials operation in Argentina.
“They are all on the list because they have the potential to be downgraded,” Diane Vazza, an S&P managing director, told the DAILY NATION yesterday when asked about Sagicor within hours of the list being made public.
Sagicor, a premier insurance firm with headquarters in Barbados, was on the list “because it has the potential to be downgraded”, was all Vazza would say. Indeed, she added, all the companies, which ran into dozens, were singled out “because they have the potential to be downgraded”.