Continued struggles and a change at the top have sent credit default swap (CDS) spreads for Mattel Inc. to levels not seen in four years, according to Fitch Solutions in its latest CDS Case Study Snapshot.
Five-year CDS on Mattel widened out 49% over the past month. After pricing consistently in-line with 'BBB' levels for much of the past year, the cost of credit protection on Mattel's debt has now moved into below-investment grade space.
'The bulk of Mattel's CDS widening has taken place over the earlier part of this week, with spreads moving out 32%,' said Diana Allmendinger. 'Likely driving Mattel's CDS movement was the departure of its CEO amid disappointing holiday sales and continued declines in quarterly sales.'
Fitch Solutions case studies build on data from its CDS Pricing Service and proprietary quantitative models, including CDS Implied Ratings. These credit risk indicators are designed to provide real-time, market-based views of creditworthiness. As such, they can and often do reflect more short term market views on factors such as currencies, seasonal market effects and short-term technical influences. This is in contrast to Fitch Ratings' Issuer Default Ratings (IDRs), which are based on forward-looking fundamental credit analysis over an extended period of time.
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