KBRA Podcasts

In this episode John Sage, Senior Director and Head of Private Credit Research here at KBRA will be joined by two colleagues — Ken Egan from the Sovereign team and Karim Nassif from the Corporate, Infrastructure and Project Finance team. They will be diving into the topic of how euro area inflation has become less correlated with oil price swings. We’ll unpack why that link has weakened — from reduced oil intensity and greater supply diversification, to stronger policy buffers. We’ll also explore what all this means for the credit outlook of European energy companies.

In this episode of KBRA Podcasts, John Sage, KBRA’s Senior Director and Head of Private Credit Research, is joined by Ken Egan from Sovereigns and Karim Nassif from Project Finance and Infrastructure (PF&I) to discuss how European sovereigns are navigating global volatility. Ken highlights resilient labor markets, political fragmentation, and monetary divergence. Karim explores the growing role of PF&I in defense, digital, and energy sectors amid Europe’s policy-driven growth.

KBRA analyst Karim Nassif and Ken Egan review the European project finance and infrastructure (PF&I) market’s performance in 2024 and discuss the themes that will likely take centre stage in 2025. The supportive policy environment, slightly improved economic conditions with a relative softening in commodity prices should act as tailwinds to the sector. KBRA also expects PF&I to act as a growing funding tool to support the energy transition and digital sector but will be reliant on greater involvement from private credit in the year ahead to achieve the national and European Union targets.

BANK COMPENDIUM INSIGHTS: FOURTH-QUARTER 2022 BANK EARNINGS IN REVIEWBank Loan Quality and Loss Absorption Capacity Better Today Than in Early 2000sIn case you missed it, KBRA Financial Institutions Group analysts Leah Hallfors, Senior Director, John Rempe, Director, and Brian Ropp, Managing Director, discuss KBRA’s latest views of the U.S. banking industry, as well as the key takeaways of 4Q22 financial results. This edition also features a study conducted on various loan mix and quality indicators, as well as the loss absorption capacity from structural earnings, of banks as of 3Q22 relative to the period surrounding the early 2000s recession. The eleventh episode of Bank Compendium Insights highlights:1. Loan mix and quality in 3Q22 compared to the early 2000s2. Loss absorption capacity via structural earnings and secondary buffers3. Deposit betas and NIM trends4. Environmental, Social, and Governance regulatory update

In this episode, Joan Feldbaum-Vidra, head of Sovereigns Ratings, discusses expectations for sovereign credit quality. The improved outlook for growth is balanced against still weak growth expectations, swollen government balance sheets, tight financial conditions, political risks, and enduring high prices for food, while the expiration of the G20’s Debt Service Suspension Initiative in the next few years will require difficult fiscal adjustments. Government balance sheets are also less flexible to manage future shocks.