S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies Expands Coverage Beyond Rated Universe With Quantitatively-Derived Corporate Credit Health Assessments

NEW YORK, May 4 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies, an independent and analytically separate business unit within Standard & Poor's that provides users with market intelligence and analytic insight for risk-driven investment analysis, announced the launch of a new credit evaluation benchmark on its Global Credit Portal investor analytics platform. Called the Credit Health Panel, the new feature provides a quantitative credit perspective on over 3,000 rated and 23,000 un-rated non-financial public companies.

Designed to give investors a dashboard view of the credit health of a corporate entity relative to a broad set of entity peers, the Credit Health Panel is intended to allow for extensive and efficient counterparty and portfolio risk analysis. Targeted primarily at commercial lending, corporate treasury, and risk management professionals, the Credit Health Panel provides an instant peer comparison and a rapid, market-wide perspective on income, operational, liquidity and probability of default estimates for the largest universe of corporate entities ever addressed by S&P.

Among the key metrics provided by the Credit Health Panel are the following:

• Overall Credit Health Score: A quantitative analysis of an entity's cash generation capabilities, operational risks and ability to meet its financial obligations.

• Probability of Default Score: A forward-looking estimate allowing users to assess default risk within the next 12 months by including financial, industry and macroeconomic factors.

• CreditModel Score: A quantitatively-derived credit assessment mapped to the Standard & Poor's rating scale, based upon historical default frequency, which includes fundamentals and equity evaluations.

"With the Credit Health Panel, we've created an extensive heat map of corporate credit health that allows investors to quickly evaluate entities relative to their peer groups," said Lou Eccleston, executive managing director and head of S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies.  "By expanding well beyond the Standard & Poor's rated universe, we are giving investors of every size the tools intended to help them conduct truly robust risk-driven investment analysis."

"The Credit Health Panel analyzes 33 key financial metrics across three risk categories (income, operational and liquidity) to give investors a quantitative view of credit performance vs. a peer group," said Sonia Kim, managing director, S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies.  "We've made it possible for all investors to conduct a level of analysis in minutes that would have previously been cost- and time-prohibitive for even the most sophisticated credit analysts."

The Credit Health Panel is available to Standard & Poor's customers worldwide through the S&P Global Credit Portal. www.standardandpoors.com/ratingsdirect

About S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies

S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies delivers a portfolio of products and services to investors that serve the global financial markets by providing market intelligence and analytic insight for risk driven investment analysis, including for the debt, structured finance, derivative and credit markets. S&P Valuation and Risk Strategies is analytically and editorially independent from any other analytical group at Standard & Poor's, including Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.  The unit has no access to non-public information received by other units of Standard & Poor's. Standard & Poor's does not trade on its own account.  

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With offices in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for 150 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com.

SOURCE Standard & Poor's