...Quarterly Market Monitor and Forecast Summary Overall Leverage to Fall: We forecast gross leverage for our rated APAC corporate portfolio to edge down to 3.5x in 2014 from 3.8x in 2013. However, this is slightly higher than our previous 2014 forecast of 3.4x, and is largely explained by the downward revisions to our aggregate FCF forecasts during 1Q14, particularly in the energy and utilities sectors. Bias to Downgrades Remains: Corporate downgrades outweighed upgrades by 3x during 1Q14, keeping our rolling annual APAC corporate downgrade-to-upgrade ratio firmly in favour of downgrades at 1.4:1. Over the last nine quarters since 1Q12, upgrades have only exceeded downgrades in three quarters, i.e. 2Q12, 1Q13, and 3Q13. Issuance Levels Fall: Total APAC cross-border issuance fell both sequentially and yoy to USD44bn during 1Q14, with most APAC markets witnessing a fall (with the exception of South Korea). Once again, Chinese corporates dominated with USD20bn of cross-border issuance, but this...
