Shoppers enter a Bed Bath & Beyond store Monday, May 29, 2023, in Glendale, Colo. An Associated Press analysis found the number of publicly-traded “zombie” companies — those so laden with debt they’re struggling to pay even the interest on their loans — has soared to nearly 7,000 around the world, including 2,000 in the United States. FILE - Shoppers enter exit a Bed Bath & Beyond store Monday, May 29, 2023, in Glendale, Colo.
Zombies are commonly defined as companies that have failed to make enough money from operations in the past three years to pay even the interest on their loans. Their numbers have swelled because low interest rates for years allowed companies to pile up plenty of cheap debt, only to be whiplashed by stubborn inflation that has pushed borrowing costs to
For the first few months of this year, hundreds of zombies refinanced their loans as lenders opened their wallets in anticipation that the Federal Reserve would start cutting in March. That new money helped stocks of more than 1,000 zombies in AP’s analysis rise 20% or more in the past six months.this year, zombies will have to pay off $1.1 trillion of loans, according to AP’s analysis, two-thirds of the total due by the end of the year.
“If rates stay at this level in the near future, we’re going to see more bankruptcies,” said George Cipolloni, a fund manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management. “At some point the money comes due and they’re not going to have it. It’s game over.”by credit rating agencies and economists for years as interest rates fell but got a big push when central banks around the world cut benchmark rates to near zero in the 2009 financial crisis and then again in the 2020-21 pandemic.