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| John Olert |
Fitch Ratings is expanding its high-yield coverage and is looking to hire two additional senior analysts and one or two junior analysts as part of this effort. The ratings agency currently rates 130 high-yield credits and 70 of the top 100 high-yield issuers. "We certainly have a large base to start from and we're going to continue to grow this business. We're in it for the long haul," noted Eric Tutterow, a senior director in Fitch's Chicago office, who joined from KDP Investment Advisors last September as part of the strategy. Tutterow focused on the telecom and technology industries at KDP and prior to this was director of taxable fixed income research at Van Kampen Investments.
The high-yield effort is taking place under Fitch's corporate finance umbrella. "We made a lot of progress on the investment-grade front and have some meaningful coverage of the high-yield market," added John Olert, managing director and co-head North America corporate finance. In addition to the new hires, the ratings agency plans to draw off the strength of its current sector analysts. Most already have experience in high-yield, Olert noted.
While the agency does not have a set number of credits it would like to cover, Tutterow said it will look to focus on the names that the asset management side of the market focus on and would like to cover most of the large issuers. In the past two years, Fitch rated more than 300 high-yield loans a year. "We've been pretty active there to begin with and we're trying to figure out ways to be more active," Olert said. "We're looking at exactly what investors expect of ratings in that space and methodology and trying to deliver what they want as efficiently as we can."