Credit rating agency Standard & Poor’s (S&P) delivered a downgrade to Groupe PSA keeping its bonds at a BBB- rating, but cutting its outlook on PSA to “negative” from “stable.”
S&P took even harder aim at Renault, downgrading its bonds to ‘BB+/B’ from ‘BBB-/A-3’, meaning it had ascribed a “junk bond” status to those Renault corporate bonds.
Data released earlier this month showed that car registrations in France had dropped by more than 72 percent in March due to the Covid-19 outbreak and lockdown ordered by authorities to fight the pandemic’s spread.
Shares in Renault and PSA were both down by around 1 percent in late-session trading.