Developing-nation debt worth US$100b up for grabs

London

THERE may be a lot more in store for emerging-market investors who scooped up bargains during a US$220 billion purge of investment-grade corporate bonds last year.

A further US$100 billion of developing-nation debt faces downgrade to junk this year as Moody's Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings tally up the effects of the oil shock, according to analysts at Barclays plc. Bonds demoted to speculative grade, so-called fallen angels, have handed investors returns of 8.6 per cent this year, beating indexes of emerging market and high-yield peers, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Bloomberg data.