Toyota Motor Corp.'s debt rating was cut by Fitch Ratings, the automaker's first downgrade in 10 years, as the slump in U.S. car sales drags down earnings at the company with the industry's best credit.
Fitch cut Toyota's senior unsecured debt rating two levels to AA from AAA with a negative outlook on the company, it said in a report today. The shares dropped 4.6 percent, the most in two weeks, to close at 2,985 yen on the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
A lower debt rating raises borrowing costs for Toyota, potentially hindering its ability to offer interest-free loans to boost sales in the U.S. Toyota, set to topple General Motors Corp.'s 77-year reign as the world's largest automaker this year, may also have its worst share performance since at least 1975.
"Toyota is suffering severely from the ongoing turmoil in the global automotive sector,'' said Tatsuya Mizuno, director at Fitch Ratings, in the report. "The negative developments in the industry are so substantial and fundamental that even the strongest player -- Toyota -- can no longer support a 'AAA' rating.''
The rating cut is the company's first since Moody's Investors Service reduced its long-term debt rating from Aaa to Aa1 in 1998. Moody's raised the company back up to Aaa in 2003. Standard & Poor's has rated the carmaker AAA since 1985.
Continued...
