Fitch questions state support

Governments intervening to prop up struggling companies – as in the well-publicised cases of France Télécom or Alstom – is not always beneficial to bondholders, says a recent report from Fitch Ratings

Two new reports from rating agency Fitch Ratings highlight threats and challenges to the interests of European corporate bond investors.

In one report, entitled A Free Market for Corporate Control in Europe: The Bond Investors’ Perspective, Fitch argues that European bondholders stand to benefit more from a liberalised market for corporate control than from the current relatively high level of state intervention and the “national champion” approach to business still prevalent in Europe.

Sometimes