...In this edition of the Fitch 50 Europe, we present a compendium of select European high-yield bond issuers to which Fitch has assigned a public Issuer Default Rating (IDR) of `B+' or below. This sample includes leveraged buyouts of various sizes, restructured credits, dividend recapitalisations, and highly leveraged mid-market borrowers that typically represent the main sources of supply in the rapidly evolving "highly speculative" 'B+' and below cohort of the European high-yield corporate bond market. The front section emphasises our approach to differentiating credits at the lower end of the rating scale. It supplements Fitch's Ratings Navigators, used to articulate the agency's approach to sector and issuer-specific distinctions by rating category, to provide more granularity on the analysis per rating notch below the `BB' category. In Fitch's view, the following factors drive rating outcomes at "highly speculative" rating levels: business model, execution risk in management's strategy,...
