Moody's Upgrades GM Credit Rating To Investment Grade

TTAC Staff
by TTAC Staff

In another sign that largest American automaker has come back from its 2009 bankruptcy, for the first time since 2005, a credit rating firm has judged General Motors’ corporate debt to be investment-grade. On Tuesday, Moody’s Investors Service raised GM’s rating to Baa3 from Ba1. Baa3 is Moody’s lowest rating that it considers worthy of investment.

Moody’s cited GM’s new product in the United States, its strength in China, and management’s commitment to keeping a strong balance sheet. “We think that the disciplines the company has embraced, combined with the strength of its U.S. product portfolio and a healthy domestic market, will enable it to stay on that path,” Bruce Clark, a senior vice president at Moody’s, said in a statement cited by The Detroit Free Press and praised, GM’s “steadily improving operational and financial trajectory.” Aggressive pricing by Japanese automakers and losses in Europe were cited as possible risks

Standard & Poor’s and Fitch, the other major ratings agencies continue to rate GM’s debt as junk bonds, though both firms recently raised their projections for the automaker from stable to positive.

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  • Buickman Buickman on Sep 25, 2013

    and then there is that darn US Market Share thing...

  • Beerboy12 Beerboy12 on Sep 25, 2013

    This is not too much of a surprise. GM are clearly going up and that is a great time to invest.

    • See 2 previous
    • Thelaine Thelaine on Sep 26, 2013

      @morbo Agreed morbo. There was broad consensus in Washington that the government was going to guarantee GMs BK so that GM would not be broken up, which people believed might destroy the auto manufacturing supply chain for all of the domestics. Some people will not acknowledge this history. Other people will not acknowledge that the specifics of the bailout deal were put in place by the current administration. They are the ones who gave away the farm to the UAW as payback for political support. This was pure corruption and totally unnecessary to saving GM.

  • HerrKaLeun HerrKaLeun on Sep 25, 2013

    Aafter getting rid of all debt, but without really losign any assetts (thanks to the taxpayer) they are in a better position than many succesful companies that actually have to pay down their old debt. If I declare private bankruptcy, no same person woudl lend me any money for 7 years or longer unless i pay premium interest. It seems corporations have short term memory only. Whoever lends them money now has no one to blame but himself whne they go bankrupt again and all the money is lost.

  • So long as there is a US GOVERNMENT, GM will never be allowed to fail completely. I knew that back when the bailout was on the table for the BIG 3 and I got lucky buying FORD shares well below $1.60 a piece. Got into TESLA when it was less than $28 a little over a year ago. After testing the Model S, I knew it was special. But what's with these confusing credit ratings? Why not just make it something everyone understands like A, B, C, D, or F??? this is worse than the new grading system for middle school: 1, 2, 3 ,4. That's just STUPID.

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