The rating is the estimation of creditworthiness of a company, carried out by an independent private or governmental institution. Ratings are mainly used in order to create a ranking of companies according to financial factors. Ratings, however, also indicate the failure probability or the insolvency of a company.
The increments by the rating agency Standard and Poor’s:
AAA: Very slight failure probability
AA+, AA, AA-: Only very small failure probability
A+, A, A-: Safe, if there is no influence on the events of the overall economy or the industry
BBB+, BBB, BBB-: In the case of decline of the overall economy, problems have to be expected
BB+ and lower: Speculative and risky, payment defaults have to be expected