国际英语新闻：S&P may downgrade Toyota's rating

CHICAGO, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Rating agency Standard & Poor's warned Friday in Washington it may downgrade Toyota Motor Corp., as the company has lost about 30 billion U.S. dollars of its market capitalization in recent weeks.

Toyota continues to face fallout from its global recall of more than 9 million vehicles in two campaigns linked to questions of sudden unintended acceleration, Detroit News reported.

S&P said its new warning stemmed from "increased concern over the potential negative impact on Toyota's business risk profile of unfolding developments related to recent quality issues." Since Jan. 19, Toyota's stock is down more than 20 percent.

A Toyota Motor Corp logo is seen on a car at a junkyard in a suburb of Tokyo February 5, 2010.

Toyota group suppliers Denso, Aisin and Toyota Industries also were put on notice of a downgrade in their investment grade bond ratings.

S&P said it expects to decide by mid-May whether to downgrade Toyota.

The ratings agency also noted new concerns about the braking systems on Toyota Prius vehicles. The third-generation models are under investigation in Japan and the United States by auto safety regulators.