Rolls-Royce
Gallows humour has it that the first-ever cut in Rolls-Royce’s creditworthiness to junk status is only because rating agencies were not around in the 1970s, when the company collapsed and was saved by nationalisation. Then again, so the jokers say, if S&P, Moody’s and Fitch had been opining on Rolls in 1971, they probably would have missed its implosion and would have cut their ratings only once the aircraft engine maker had actually gone bust (Robert Lea writes).
That S&P is warning now that Rolls is a risky entity to do business with (something that the stock market already knew) merely indicates the seriousness of Rolls’ financial crisis. If the company had been trying to hide it (which it hasn’t), it wouldn’t have allowed
