Companies around the world will take on as much as $1 trillion of new debt in 2020, a new study of 900 top firms has estimated.
The unprecedented increase will see total global corporate debt jump by 12% to around $9.3 trillion, adding to years of accumulation that has left the world's most indebted firms owing as much as many medium-sized countries. Companies tapped bond markets for $384 billion between January and May, and Meyer estimates that recent weeks have set a new record for debt issuance from riskier "high yield" firms with lower credit ratings.
Pre-tax profits for the same group of 900 companies have risen a collective 9.1% to $2.3 trillion. Gearing, a measure of debt relative to shareholder finance, hit a record 59% in 2019, while the proportion of profit devoted to servicing interest payments also rose to a new high.
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Source: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Read more »
Source: BusinessInsider - 🏆 729. / 51 Read more »