German government accused rating agency S&P of biased estimation of German companies' solvency

/Bloomberg, March 4, 03/ - German ministry of finance has called to more thorough controlling for rating decisions, which are made by leading rating agency - S&P and Moody's, and also stated about the necessity to found alternative European rating agency. According to Bloomberg's information, such the statement was made after S&P downgraded credit rating of the largest German steel producer ThyssenKrupp down to the so called "garbage" level. As was noted in the interview of Bloomberg by representative of German ministry of finance Dietrich Jahn, "there has been concentrated too much power in hands of several agencies, that's why foundation of European agency, which will be equal by its status to S&P, is really timely now". And the speaker of leading German Democratic party Joachim Poss stated that S&P and Moody's "do not understand specific of German economics", having noted that "their influence in our country is a serious problem". Quotations of shares of ThyssenKrupp fell down to record low level after S&P downgraded the company's rating by two degrees at a time: from "ВВВ" to "ВВ+". As was stated by official representative of corporation Klaus Pepperhoff, last week ThyssenKrupp initiated independent investigation having doubted in objectivity of such the decision. "I hope other nine companies, which S&P included into the list of borrowers, whose rating may be downgraded in the nearest future, will also follow our example", - noted the representative of ThyssenKrupp. S&P, in its turn, stated about full objectivity of its rating decisions and expressed "extreme anxiety concerning accusations of jaundice. We are reminding that Germany is not the only country, which is dissatisfied with the rating agencies' actions. In summer of last year government of Japan sent Moody's letter, in which it informed about its intention to demand compensation for a series of rating decisions, which had decreased the country's investment attractiveness. [2003-03-04]