Bear Stearns Downgrades High Yield Wireless Sector; Sandy Liang Lowers Sector Rating Due to Increased Market Risk and Low Fourth Quarter Visibility.Business and Technology Editors NEW YORK New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , New York--(BUSINESS WIRE)--December 6, 2002 Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc. high yield wireless analyst Sandy Liang downgraded the high yield wireless telecommunications and towers sectors to underweight Underweight An situation where a portfolio does not hold a sufficient amount of securities to satisfy the accepted benchmark of the portfolio's asset allocation strategy. Notes: due to increased industry risk and significant price appreciation. After reaching an all-time low in July, most of the sector has rallied back, despite the lack of major positive developments in the past quarter. "The wireless industry is highly competitive and it's growth has slowed significantly," said Sandy Liang, high yield wireless telecommunications and towers analyst. "In the short-term we believe industry risk has increased, because of more intense price competition brought on by the slowdown in customer growth. However, in the long-term we believe major opportunities, such as unleveraged free cash-flow growth and potential consolidation, will improve the sectors' outlook. We will revisit our recommendation in early-2003, but for now we recommend that bond investors keep things simple and concentrate their portfolio in core-holdings, such as Nextel Communications and AT&T Wireless bonds." Sandy Liang made his comments at Thursday's Bear Stearns High Yield and Crossover Credit crossover credit Of or relating to a bond that straddles the gap between investment-grade and speculative. Crossover credits are generally rated low investment-grade by one rating agency and upper-grade speculative by another rating agency. Conference. He also recommended Rogers Wireless bonds as a "safe harbor Safe Harbor 1. A legal provision to reduce or eliminate liability as long as good faith is demonstrated. 2. A form of shark repellent implemented by a target company acquiring a business that is so poorly regulated that the target itself is less attractive. " investment and Dobson Communications bonds as a "long-term" investment. The conference provided investors with high yield sector updates and buy recommendations. The event was held at Bear Stearns' world headquarters at 383 Madison Avenue in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . Commenting on the conference, Michael Hyland, head of US Credit Research, said, "We believe this type of event will prove to be extremely beneficial to our clients. For instance, today our analysts provided bond recommendations, with their price points, in several high yield industries and addressed the questions "how much", "when" and "why" regarding selected credits." Founded in 1923, The Bear Stearns Companies Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : BSC (Binary Synchronous Communications) See bisync. ) is the parent company of Bear, Stearns & Co. Inc., a leading investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firm serving governments, corporations, institutions and individuals worldwide. With approximately $29.6 billion in total capital, the company's business includes corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, institutional equities and fixed income sales, trading and research, private client services, derivatives, foreign exchange and futures sales and trading, asset management and custody services. Through Bear, Stearns Securities Corp., it offers prime broker and broker dealer clearing services, including clearing and securities lending Securities Lending When a brokerage lends securities owned by its clients to short sellers. Notes: This allows brokers to create additional revenue (commissions) on the short sale transaction. . Headquartered in New York City, the company has approximately 10,500 employees worldwide. For additional information about Bear Stearns, please visit the firm's Web site at http://www.bearstearns.com. |
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