Board-Ansicht
Mix-Ansicht- BOE: Risk of Phone-Company Debt - sehet, wie die Dominosteinchen... - Erwin, 14.12.2000, 11:16
- sehet, wie die Dominosteinchen... Eher ein Schneeballeffekt. ot (owT) - SchlauFuchs, 14.12.2000, 13:09
BOE: Risk of Phone-Company Debt - sehet, wie die Dominosteinchen...
zu wackeln beginnen... hier u.a. namentlich Mobilcom, Argentinien u. Türkei erwähnt:
Bank of England Warns of Risk of Phone-Company Debt (Update1)
By Reed V. Landberg
London, Dec. 14 (Bloomberg) -- For the second time in six months, the Bank of England warned that the rising debt of European and U.S. telephone companies increases the risk of a financial crisis in world equity and credit markets.
In its semi-annual review of financial stability, the U.K.'s central bank said investors could lose confidence in markets if phone companies such as British Telecommunications Plc and Royal KPN NV default on loans they've taken in the past few years.
Phone companies have paid more than $88 billion to European governments for wireless Internet licenses. Companies offering telecommunications services asked banks for a record $252 billion in the first nine months, according to Thomson Financial Securities Data. That's up from $38 billion, or 17 percent of all loans, during the same period two years ago.
``Risks in the financial environment have probably increased somewhat in recent months,'' Bank of England Deputy Governor David Clementi said in a statement. ``In the face of this, financial systems in the industrial countries remain generally robust. The risks of instability should not be exaggerated.''
The report comes a week after shares of MobilCom AG, a German mobile-phone service, fell as much as 33 percent in a day on concern 10 banks that lent it about $4 billion are having trouble sharing the risk among other banks.
Second Warning
The Bank of England cited the high cost of the licenses, which allow customers permanent wireless connections to the Web, as one reason overall market stability has fallen in the past six months. The bank is concerned companies have taken loans to finance projects that won't pay off for decades.
In June, the bank voiced similar concerns. This month it said some progress, but not enough, has been made in reducing the risk that telecommunications borrowing will topple market stability.
The high cost of the licenses and spending on building networks for the services will leave companies with bills in excess of $200 billion. Concern about the costs and the high borrowings of companies has led to a raft of credit downgrades at some of Europe's biggest phone companies.
British Telecom, the U.K.'s largest traditional-phone company, had its ratings cut to ``A,'' its lowest ever, by Standard & Poor's. It's also been placed on credit-watch ``negative,'' risking further downgrades if debt swells. It will have borrowings of 30 billion pounds ($44 billion) by March. That compares with its market capitalization of 45 billion pounds.
The former phone monopoly has announced a 10 billion-pound plan to cut debt.
The bank cited concern about a cut in debt ratings for Deutsche Telekom AG, Germany's former phone monopoly, and the less- than-expected amount raised in recent stock offerings by Telefonica Moviles SA, Spain's largest mobile-phone company, and Telekom Austria, Austria's largest phone company..
The bank also noted that some bonds sold by telecommunications companies are yielding in excess 1,000 basis points more than government bonds of comparable maturity, about 300 basis points more than other high-yield bonds.
The bank said that slowing U.S. economic growth, higher interest rates and credit crunches in nations such as Argentina and Turkey also raised risks. Its identification of a specific industry -- companies developing mobile and traditional phone services -- was more unusual.
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