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US Corporate Debt Declines As Companies Clean Up Balance Sheets

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Rupert Hargreaves
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Over the past 10 years, corporate America egged on by low-interest rates, has binged on cheap debt to fund expenditure on acquisitions, buybacks and special dividends to investors. However, as interest rates head higher, analysts on Wall Street are becoming concerned about companies’ ability to be able to repay their creditors, especially with $4 trillion of debt coming due by 2022.

These concerns recently promoted rating agency S&P Global Ratings to claim that “Removing the easy money punch bowl could trigger the next default cycle…Debt high, defaults low — something’s gotta give.”

According to the agency’s analysis, $4.4 trillion of corporate debt is scheduled to mature through 2022 including $1.3 trillion of junk bonds. Overall, corporate debt is now at...

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Sign up now and get our in-depth FREE e-books on famous investors like Klarman, Dalio, Schloss, Munger Rupert is a committed value investor and regularly writes and invests following the principles set out by Benjamin Graham. He is the editor and co-owner of Hidden Value Stocks, a quarterly investment newsletter aimed at institutional investors. Rupert owns shares in Berkshire Hathaway. Rupert holds qualifications from the Chartered Institute For Securities & Investment and the CFA Society of the UK. Rupert covers everything value investing for Hedge Fund Alpha