by Ron Carleton | Nov 22, 2011
We’ve been running a poll on the Comments on Credit blog for the past few months asking 2 questions: It is no surprise that bankers like the debt service coverage and fixed charge coverage ratios best – they are good measures of a company’s ability...
by Ron Carleton | Mar 16, 2011
We welcome your comments and questions. Here’s a question from one of our readers: “I frequently come across credits that have a substantial amount of non-cash interest expense related to hybrid financial instruments.Specifically, the one I have in mind...
by Ron Carleton | Dec 28, 2010
Here’s our list of the top 10 topics on the minds of credit professionals in 2010: 10) Risk Management – We’ve written many times this year about risk management, both good and bad. Whether it was BP and operational risk, suppliers dealing with...
by Ron Carleton | May 26, 2010
For the 7th time in 10 years, Wal-Mart is #1 on the Fortune 500 list (in the other 3 years, it was #2). The company is the largest private employer in the U.S. and accounts for 8% of total retail sales in the US. As big box retailers (including Wal-Mart, Target, The...
by Ron Carleton | Feb 1, 2010
In our last post, we described how to compare the cost of a floating rate instrument, such as a loan, to the cost of a fixed rate instrument, such as a bond. For one company, Jarden Corporation, we showed that the bond’s cost is 50 basis points higher than the...
