<boooooooorrrrrrrrrring> Same crap, different day.......
S&P slashes Victoria SIV's ratings after default
Mon Jan 14, 2008 2:05pm EST
NEW YORK, Jan 14 (Reuters) - Standard & Poor's on Monday slashed its credit ratings on Victoria Finance, a structured investment vehicle, after the fund defaulted on its obligations to pay off maturing commercial paper.
S&P lowered the fund's issuer credit rating to "D," for default, from "B-minus," the sixth lowest junk rating. Victoria's commercial paper and medium-term note ratings are also now "D."
Victoria Finance has roughly $6 billion in outstanding senior debt, S&P said in a news release. The fund is invested in mostly structured finance assets, much of it top-rated collateralized debt obligation securities.
Structured investment vehicles are specialized funds that raise cash by issuing commercial paper and then invest the proceeds in higher-yielding assets, often U.S. mortgages.
The funds, called SIVs, ran into trouble last year as investors, fearful of exposure to subprime mortgages, refused to provide funding for the vehicles. |
