Quiz 2 Flashcards
Capital markets snapshot - debt vs equity
Globally $102T of debt vs $54T of equity. So almost double the amount of debt to equity.
Debt security: like a legal IOU (fixed maturity) with specific cash flows. Contract to repay an agreed-upon face value, on a particular maturity date, often following some immediate payments.
A-L = Equity. Left side of the B/S has the project. Right side has the debt and equity
Equity security: denotes ownership, with a residual claim to cash flows (infinite maturity). After debt holders have been fully paid, the leftover cash flows are paid to shareholders of the firm. Residual claimant in capital structure, everyone else paid first.
Essentially all forms of economic activity require financing.
Debt Markets by country
Looking at where the debt comes from - general government, financial corporations, or non-financial corporations.
The US has the most debt, then China, then japan, then Great Britain. US accounts for about 40 percent of global debt outstanding. Significantly more than any other country.
US is mostly composed of general government (about 50%), then financial corporations (about 35%), and then non-financial corporations (about 15%). Similar ratios for China, but way smaller total amount (about 10% of world debt vs 40% for us)
Japan has basically no non-financial corporations. Same w Great Britain very little NFC
Kayman Islands has only financial corporations. Most countries are general government most and nfc least.
Global equity market cap
Us has about 40% of equity. EM (emerging markets) next with 15% then EU with 11% and China with 8%. Then bunch of other countries.
US bull market in the 1920s
Securities issuance and broad ownership took off.
Corporate loans went down.
Security issuance (debt and equity) went up
Stock ownership of individuals went up: directly or as “trusts” (early mutual funds)
Margin lending: up to 80% of a security’s price could be borrowed.
Compare 1920 bank balance sheet to post crash 1929 B/S
1920s:
Assets: reserves + securities + real estate loans - corporate loans
Liabilities: deposits, capital, debt&equity
Deposits and debt are fixed obligations. Equity isn’t fixed. Value of securities go down in bad times, so does equity.
1929: balance sheets shrink
Assets: reserves - securities - real estate loans - corporate loans
Liabilities: deposits, capital, debt, and equity
Securities values go down. Bank lending goes down. To meet deposit withdrawals, banks sell assets below value. Balance sheet size shrinks.
Consider a $500M project which can be financed with:
A. $100M equity and $400M debt or
B. $250M equity and $250M debt
Consider 2 outcomes:
- Good. Firm value rises to 1B
- Bad. Firm value falls to 300M
What are the leverage ratios, and what happens to debt and equity holders and return on equity in each case
Suppose interest rate is 10 percent
Leverage ratio is assets to equity. For A it is 500/100 = 5 and for B it is 500/250=2
Consider A:
- Good outcome - debt holders get their 400 back plus 10% interest is 440. Equity holders get the rest (1000-440=560). Return on equity is (560-100)/100 = 460%
- Bad outcome. Debt holders get all 300, equity holders get 0, return on equity is -100%
B. 1. Good outcome. Debt holders get 250 back plus 25 interest so 275. Equity gets the rest. This is 725. Return on equity is (725-250)/250 = 190% which isn’t as good as above but is still good.
2. Bad outcome. Debt holders get their 275. Equity holders get the other 25. Equity return is (25-250)/250 = -90%. Which isn’t as bad as before.
Leverage ratio impacts return a lot!
Incentives
For the borrower/firm, relatively higher debt issuance (leverage) means:
1. Relatively higher equity returns if the project does well, and
2. Relatively lower equity returns if it does poorly (but never <100%)
Debt financing boosts the volatility of equity returns
For the investor, fundamental difference between debt and equity:
- Creditors cannot share in upside of profits (just the claims fixed payoff). Incentivized to reduce downside risk of the issuer
- Equity providers fully share in the upside potential. Willing to accept higher risk.
—> Leverage thus increases equity upside potential and also downside risk
Borrower/firm perspective
Wants to raise money (capital)
So can do three things
1. Bank financing - borrow from the bank
2. Approach the market directly. (Fin tech to match borrower/lender)
3. Capital market (securities issuance). Here, can either hire bank/dealer as underwriter (as Shaw of Iran did) or can approach the market directly.
Primary market refers to capital market, hiring bank/dealer, and partially to approaching market directly. See two slides for more on primary market.
Corporate debt financing vs bank loans
Debt financing of non-financial corporations in 2018:
In the US, 80% debt securities, 20% bank lending
In the EU, 27% debt securities and Japan is 20% debt securities with rest bank lending.
Shows that there is a lot more debt in the US relative to bank lending. Bigger part of the US market culture and riskiness. US has historic relation with well developed capital markets. And much more fragmented and smaller markets in other places. Us has non government debt too.
Primary market
Brings new security to market for investors, single clearing price
- Underwriting (debt and equity):
- for fee, intermediation between security issuers and investors
- advise issuer and sell new issuance to raise capital
- bear risk of selling new securities - Fintech:
- gains to efficiency for traditional underwriting participants: banks and investors (e.g. automation of information distribution and order submission, records all interactions (audit trail), real time updates for clients, reduces scope for error)
- non-bank electronic platform intermediation can bypass banks - Auction:
- typically non-bank, and today often under the fintech umbrella
- a means to bypass the underwriting process
- allows market participants to determine issue prices directly: debt or equity.
- Salomon case gives example of this.
US capital markets gross issuance (flow)
Looking at debt vs equity gross issuance in the US since 2004. Debt has gone up since 04, lowest in 08 and has been pretty high since 09. Slight dips in 11 and 14 but debt up from about 6000 in 04 to 7500 in 18
Equity has been significantly less than equity. No more than 5%. Very small. Increased in 08 and 09. Has gone back down. About the same level now as in 2004. Very small compared to debt, can’t even see the number.
US capital markets outstanding (stock)
In 2004, equity was about 15 and debt about 25. Both have gone up since then. In 2018, equity about 30 and debt about 40
So see that both equity and debt have gone up. Proportionately about the same. Slight increase in equity but not really. Much more equity here than in the previous graph.
Net US debt issuance in $B (1981-2019)
Confused by this graph
Most today is from treasury then corporate debt then mortgages then money markets. Also have asset backed and federal agency
Has increased from 1981 to 2009 then fallen a lot. Back up in 2017 but back down now.
Secondary market
Post-issuance security transaction, at market price.
1. Exchange traded: centralized trading and clearing, transparent pricing
Ex: equities, futures, options (exchanges - NYSE, nasdaq, cboe)
-rules govern trading and info flow for all participants in the market
-securities must be standardized in order to trade on an exchange
-typically integrated with clearing facilities
Clearing: post-trade to settlement (e.g. confirmation of trade terms, margin, netting)
Settlement: ultimate transfer of security and/or cash
September 2017: SEC implemented t+2 settlement for most securities (e.g. stocks and corporate bonds - had been t+3)
- Over-the-counter (otc): securities not traded on an exchange
Examples: bonds, repos, swaps, Fx (non exchange platform - tradeweb, brokertec, ebs)
-decentralized: equivalent trade price may differ by participant on either side
-transaction price availability and transparency varies. Can make valuation difficult
-more scope for trading products with non-standard (bespoke) terms
-standardized otc contracts are increasingly centrally cleared (post Dodd-Frank)
Some conclusions
- US is largest debt and equity market globally
- securities issuance and trading has long history, evidenced in the relatively small bank loan segment - Debt security holders prefer low leverage bc they will not share in upside potential
- nonetheless, it is their contribution to the firms capital structure that allows for leverage - Security issuance is higher for debt than equity bc of the finite maturity
- some secondary markets are highly regulated and organized. Some are not.
US government debt/GDP
Total debt in 2020: $23T. $17T is publicly held (can potentially buy as security in market). Total debt was 12T in 2009 and 6T in 1999. So massive increase recently
Looking at graph (y axis is debt/gdp percent) see that during wars It increases. Revolutionary war and civil war and world wars way up. But after civil war goes down to basically zero% of gdp by 1910. Then wwi increases it. Goes down and then comes back up. Peaks in WWII at about 100%. Back down. Valley in the 1980s. Up in the 1990s then slightly back down and has soared since mid 2000s
About 40% to about 70-80% today. By 2050, supposed to soar to about 175%
Government debt and fiscal policy
How the firms, government, households, and financial intermediation are all interconnected
Previously we looked at how households and firms interact with financial intermediation. Now add government to this picture
Government: taxes firms and people, and provides some infrastructure
Government borrowing: allows spending to exceed income today (tied to future revenue)
Firms interact with financial intermediation through corporate borrowing and saving. Firms pay the government corporate taxes. Firms also interact with households through household income/consumption
Households interact with financial intermediation through household borrowing/saving. Interact with government through household taxes/benefits. Interact with firms thru household income/consumption
Government receives government borrowing from financial intermediation. They interact with households thru household taxes and benefits. Interact with firms thru firms paying government corporate taxes.
Us treasury securities are issued to the market in a similar way.
First public debt issued in the colonies
1690, colonial Massachusetts: to pay soldiers after an unsuccessful plunder (trying to steal property), government issued paper “notes”
Promised:
1. Notes redeemable for gold/silver from future tax revenue
2. No more notes to be issued, ever
1691:announce the previous note issue had been too small to fully pay debts. Increased issuance of notes by more than 6 times the original size. Promised ni more notes to be issued, ever
Problem is that keep making these promises and breaking them.
Issue value not equal to post-issue market value - These were pretty worthless(market value) once government issued a ton of these.