S&P downgrades oil producer Afren

Standard & Poor's downgraded Afren Plc (LSE: AFR.L - news) on Wednesday, becoming the second major ratings agency to warn of the oil producer's imminent default. Afren has lost more than 90 percent of its market value, or about 1.5 billion pounds ($2.3 billion), since the end of July, hit by a slump in oil prices, the dismissal of top executives and the absence of proven or probable reserves at an oilfield in Iraqi Kurdistan. Afren had about $1.15 billion in gross debt as of September. The downg