6. Corporate actions Flashcards
What are income events?
Bonds: Coupons
- fixed
- floating rate
Equities: Dividends
- ordinary shares (variable)
- pref shares (fixed)
What are capital events?
Redemption of bonds:
- bullet issue
- callable/putable issues
- sinking funds
Shares:
- rights issues
- bonus issues
- splits and consolidations
What are bullet issues?
fixed repayment of capital at end
What are callable vs putable isssues?
Callable: redeemed earlier at discretion of issuer
- usually when company believes interest rates will fall in future so want to have option where they can redeem bond and issue smt w lower coupon
- usually cheaper for investor
Putable: redeemed earlier at discretion of investor
-usually when investor believes interest rates will rise in future, allows them to redeem and invest money somewhere else (as bond prices will fall)
- usually more expensive
What are sinking funds?
Where principal is paid in part before final redemption date
- reduces risk for investors
What is the difference between the cum-dividend period and the ex-dividend period?
Cum-div period: buyer of security will be entitled to next dividend payment
Ex-div period: buyer of security will not be entitled to next div payment (seller will)
What is the record date?
The record (books closed) date is the date on which a company inspects
the register of members in order to establish which shareholders will be sent the dividend
What is the usual record date in the UK?
Tends to be a Friday
What is the Ex-div date in the UK typically?
Day before record date so Thursday
What is a special ex-date trade?
A trade where the share is bought/sold without the dividend that takes
place in the cum-div period
What are the regulations around special ex-date trades in the UK?
It is only permitted for up to 10 business days before the ex-div date
What is a special cum-bargain?
A trade where the share is bought/sold with the dividend that takes place
in the ex-div period
what are the UK regulations around special cum-bargains?
It is only permitted up to the day before the dividend
payment date
Why may investors want to trade special-ex?
To avoid income tax
How is a claim generated if due to an error a buyer who traded in the cum-div period did not receive dividend?
Buyer’s broker makes claim from seller’s broker
What is a rights issue?
A follow on issue of shares giving existing shareholders the right to subscribe to more shares in proportion to their existing holding
What are the benefits of a rights issue?
- mitigates risk of diluting ownership
- shares typically offered at discount to current market price
- a shareholder who does not want to subscribe more cash and take up
their rights can sell them - issues are generally underwritten
when can shareholders waive preemption rights?
Through a special resolution at a general meeting of UK-listed companies
what happens to share price after rights issue?
Share price falls because new shares issued at discount trade pari passu with existing shares on markets causes drop in price
What is the theoretical ex-rights price and how to calculate?
- price drop in share price after rights issue
- add the price of the discounted price to the original price in the rights issue ratio and then divide the total by the number of shares after the rights issue
What do the numbers in the righst ratio represent?
Left: new shares
Right: existing shares
So if it is a 1:4 rights issue at 1.50, for every 4 existing shares you have you can buy 1 more at discount of 1.50
How can an investor sell their rights?
At the nil-paid price
How to calculate nil-paid price?
Theoretical ex rights price - subscription price (for new rights issued shares - so the discount price)
What is an open offer?
Very similar to a rights issue, but the investor are not permitted to sell their rights nil-paid
Instead they have only two choices:
- Take the rights
- Allow the rights to lapse
What is the letter informing investors of their preemptive rights ?
Provisional allotment letter