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Default, Transition, and Recovery: The Global Corporate Default Tally Rises To 31 With The First Bankruptcy Of 2022

S&P Global Ratings' 2022 global corporate default tally has increased to 31 after three companies defaulted since our last report:

  • Pennsylvania-based power generation and infrastructure company Talen Energy Supply LLC
  • Germany-based gaming company Safari Beteiligungs GmbH
  • One confidential issuer

The default of Talen Energy marks the first nonconfidential bankruptcy of 2022--a historically low tally (see chart 1). So far in 2022, missed interest payments lead the tally with 12, followed by distressed exchanges with 11.

U.S. and European defaults remain lower than at this point in 2021 (see table 1), but the gap may close, particularly in Europe, where two-thirds of companies rated 'CCC+' or below have less-than-adequate liquidity, indicating the sources of funding available to them in the next 12 months closely match their expected uses of funds. Thus, these issuers will be highly dependent on operating performance or their ability to obtain liquidity from external sources, which may prove difficult given current regional challenges (see "Risky Credits: The Number Of European 'CCC' Issuers Rises, While Liquidity And Leverage Indicators Point To Potential Future Stress," May 11, 2022).

This Week's Observations

  • This year's global default tally remains nearly one-quarter lower than the 2021 year-to-date total of 41.
  • The emerging markets region is the only region with defaults above previous year-to-date totals.
  • Defaults in the homebuilders and real estate sector and utilities sector are higher than at this point in 2021.

Table 1

Year-To-Date Defaults Are 24% Lower Than Last Year
Global corporate default summary
Region 12-month-trailing speculative-grade default rate (%) 2022 YTD default tally 2021 YTD default tally 2021 default tally Weakest links tally
U.S. 1.29* 15 23 40 121
Emerging markets 2.0 11 6 15 64
Europe 0.94* 5 11 14 61
Other developed 1.5 0 1 3 10
Global 1.4 31 41 72 256
Notes: Other developed region includes Australia, Canada, Japan, and New Zealand. Default counts may include confidentially rated issuers. *Trailing-12-month speculative-grade default rates from March 31, 2021, to March 31, 2022, are preliminary and subject to change. Year-to-date data as of May 11, 2022. Weakest link data as of March 8, 2022. Sources: S&P Global Ratings Research and S&P Global Market Intelligence's CreditPro®.

Chart 1

image

Chart 2

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Table 2

The 2022 Global Corporate Default Tally Reaches 31
Date Parent company Country/market Subsector To From Reason
1/4/2022

ION Geophysical Corp.

U.S. Oil and gas D CCC Missed principal and interest payments
1/4/2022 Confidential Confidential Utilities D NR Confidential
1/13/2022

R&F Properties (HK) Co. Ltd.

Hong Kong Homebuilders/real estate companies SD CC Distressed exchange
1/19/2022 Confidential Confidential Homebuilders/real estate companies SD CCC- Confidential
1/24/2022

Fusion Connect Inc.

U.S. Telecommunications SD CC Distressed exchange
2/1/2022

Future Retail Ltd.

India Consumer products SD CCC- Missed principal payments
2/1/2022

TPC Group Inc. (TPC Group LLC)

U.S. Health care D CCC Missed interest payments
2/4/2022 Confidential Confidential Consumer products D NR Confidential
2/9/2022 Confidential Confidential Consumer products SD CCC Confidential
2/10/2022

Credito Real S.A.B. de C.V., SOFOM, E.N.R.

Mexico Financial institutions SD CCC- Missed principal payments
2/11/2022 Confidential Confidential Homebuilders/real estate companies SD CC Confidential
2/17/2022

U.S. TelePacific Holdings Corp.

U.S. Telecommunications SD CCC- Distressed exchange
3/15/2022

Diamond Sports Group LLC (Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.)

U.S. Media and entertainment SD CC Distressed exchange
3/21/2022

Mulhacen Pte. Ltd.

Singapore Financial institutions D CC Distressed exchange
3/24/2022

MHP SE

Ukraine Consumer products SD B- Missed interest payments
4/1/2022

Ruby Pipeline LLC

U.S. Utilities D CC Missed principal payments
4/7/2022

Owl Finance Ltd. (Hibu Group Ltd.)

U.K. Media and entertainment SD CC Distressed exchange
4/7/2022

PSS Industrial Group Corp.

U.S. Utilities D CCC- Missed principal and interest payments
4/8/2022

Guangzhou R&F Properties Co. Ltd.

China Homebuilders/real estate companies SD CC Distressed exchange
4/8/2022

Kernel Holding S.A.

Ukraine Consumer products SD B- Missed interest payments
4/11/2022 Confidential Cayman Islands Homebuilders/real estate companies SD CC Confidential
4/11/2022

Promotora de Informaciones S.A.

Spain Media and entertainment SD CC Distressed exchange
4/12/2022

Dunn Paper Holdings Inc.

U.S. Chemicals, packaging, and environmental services D CCC Missed interest payments
4/12/2022

Grupo Kaltex S.A. de C.V.

Mexico Consumer products D CCC- Missed principal payments
4/12/2022

Petropavlovsk PLC

U.K. Metals, mining, and steel SD CCC- Missed interest payments
4/13/2022 Confidential Confidential High technology D CCC Confidential
4/14/2022

EuroChem Group AG

Switzerland Chemicals, packaging, and environmental services SD CCC- Missed interest payments
4/22/2022

Wesco Aircraft Holdings Inc. (Wolverine Intermediate Holding Corp.)

U.S. Aerospace and defense SD CCC+ Distressed exchange
5/3/2022

Envision Healthcare Corp. (Envision Healthcare Holdings Inc.)

U.S. Health care SD CCC Distressed exchange
5/6/2022

Safari Beteiligungs Gmbh (Dice Midco Sarl)

Germany Media and entertainment SD CC Distressed exchange
5/10/2022

Talen Energy Supply LLC (Talen Energy Corp.)

U.S. Utilities D CCC Bankruptcy
NR--Not rated. SD--Selective default. Data as of May 11, 2022. Sources: S&P Global Ratings Research and S&P Global Market Intelligence's CreditPro®.

Related Research

Default Studies

More analysis and statistics are available in our annual default studies, published on RatingsDirect:

Corporate (financial and nonfinancial)
Structured finance
U.S. public finance
Sovereign and international public finance
  • 2021 Annual Global Sovereign Default And Rating Transition Study

This report does not constitute a rating action.

Credit Markets Research:Nicole Serino, New York + 1 (212) 438 1396;
nicole.serino@spglobal.com
Patrick Drury Byrne, Dublin (00353) 1 568 0605;
patrick.drurybyrne@spglobal.com
Vaishali Singh, Pune;
vaishali.singh2@spglobal.com

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