Default, Transition, and Recovery: 2022 Annual Infrastructure Default And Rating Transition Study

S&P Global Ratings' infrastructure default tally rose to three in 2022, up from one in 2021 (see chart 1). The default rate rose to 0.2% in 2022, up from 0.1% in 2021. Investment-grade (IG) defaults are rare, averaging 0.6 per year since 1981 (see table 1), compared to 2.9 speculative-grade (SG) defaults per year. There were no IG defaults in 2022 for the third year in a row and in 13 of the last 14 years, while the SG default rate rose to 0.8% in 2022, up from 0.3% in 2021. Over the same timeframe, the global corporate SG default rate rose to 1.9% in 2022 from 1.7% in 2021. Historically, SG issues have defaulted at a higher rate than

...- Infrastructure as an asset class has shown resilience, with a two-year average cumulative default rate from 1981 to 2022 of 0.9%, compared with 3.7% for global nonfinancial corporates. - The number of infrastructure defaults rose to three in 2022 from one in 2021, with the default rate rising to 0.2% from 0.1%. - Credit quality among infrastructure issuers fell for the third straight year, with 82 downgrades versus 65 upgrades, although this was a smaller difference than 2021 (151 downgrades and 66 upgrades) and 2020 (238 downgrades and 36 upgrades). - The defaults for the year were Ruby Pipeline LLC and Talen Energy Supply LLC (which defaulted once on senior secured and once on senior unsecured debt). S&P Global Ratings' infrastructure default tally rose to three in 2022, up from one in 2021 (see chart 1). The default rate rose to 0.2% in 2022, up from 0.1% in 2021. Investment-grade (IG) defaults are rare, averaging 0.6 per year since 1981 (see table 1), compared to 2.9 speculative-grade...

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