No I am not talking about sexy Alfa Romeos here.
Falling stock prices mean that investors have to increasingly rely on the bond part of the convertible securities for returns.
More than $1.4 trillion of equities worldwide are now on loan, about a third higher than at the start of 2007, data compiled by Spitalfields Advisors, the London-based firm specialising in securities lending, show. Almost all of that is being used to speculate shares will fall, according to James Angel, a professor at Georgetown University who studies short-selling.
Negative Yields Investors were willing to accept negative yields of as much as 11.5 percent in January to buy Reliance Communications Ltd.’s zero-coupon convertible bonds maturing in 2011, as the company’s share price on Jan. 9 climbed to a record 821.55 rupees, 71 percent higher than the 480.68 rupee conversion price set when the $500 million of securities were sold in March, 2006.
Investors are now asking for more than 5 percent yield to buy the bonds of the Mumbai-based company, India’s second-largest mobile-phone operator, as the stock has fallen 48 percent from its record, according to Nomura Holdings Inc.’s prices.
“This market is becoming a busted universe, offering little equity value,’’ as a HK based analyst Viktor Hjort said. “As stock markets are repriced, people should treat the share option portion of a convertible bond just as a lottery ticket and start looking at the asset from pure credit fundamental perspective.’’
But then there are many other wide open, lucrative avenues for ever enterprising investment funds.
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