General Motors (GM) is not officially a junk credit. Its debt ratings from the main agencies are still in investment-grade territory. That did not stop underwriters in GM's recent record-breaking $17bn (€15bn) bond from marketing aggressively to high-yield investors, as well as investment-grade accounts.
It highlights how the border between high yield and investment grade has increasingly blurred in the past year. A big reason for that has been the emergence of fallen angels â corporates that have fallen on tough times, become too highly leveraged and have lost their investment-grade status.
