From Bloomberg: The credit rating on $695.4 million of municipal
debt issued to finance a new baseball stadium for the New York Mets was
cut to junk by Standard & Poor's because of losses suffered by an
insurance company that provided a surety bond.
Standard & Poor's lowered its rating on four
series of bonds issued by New York City on behalf of Queens Ballpark
Company LLC to BB+, the highest non-investment grade rating, from BBB
because Ambac Assurance Corp., which guaranteed the performance of the
debt service reserve fund on bonds issued in 2006, has a CC rating, the
third-lowest non-investment grade rating. The stadium, called Citi
Field, opened last year.
