European telecommunications companies saw their credit default swaps among the most active during the week ended January 21, 2011.
French provider, France Telecom, German provider Deutsche Telekom, Portuguese provider Portugal Telecom International Finance (the funding vehicle for the Portugal Telecom group and its primary asset, Portugal Telecom, SGPS), Italian provider Telecom Italia, Spanish provider Telefonica, and British providers Vodafone and British Telecommunications (BT).
A few other major European telco’s that didn’t necessarily make the top 25 list but were still relatively active include Sweden’s TeliaSonera which saw almost $713 million in 102 contracts and Norway’s Telenor which saw almost $670 million in 93 contracts.
Another noticeable entrant to the list this week was United States of America sovereign CDS which was last in the active list on August 13, 2010. Although not it not new news to anyone, investors are still worried about America’s debt load and appear to be demonstrating those fears yet again in the credit markets by bidding up USA CDS to an 11-month high of 51 bps.
Other active corporates included MBIA Insurance, Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Morgan Stanley, Alliance Boots, Banco Santander and Bank of America.