Question 108 bond pricing, zero coupon bond, term structure of interest rates, forward interest rate
An Australian company just issued two bonds:
- A 1 year zero coupon bond at a yield of 10% pa, and
- A 2 year zero coupon bond at a yield of 8% pa.
What is the forward rate on the company's debt from years 1 to 2? Give your answer as an APR compounding every 6 months, which is how the above bond yields are quoted.
A furniture distributor offers credit to its customers. Customers are given 25 days to pay for their goods, but if they pay immediately they will get a 1% discount.
What is the effective interest rate implicit in the discount being offered? Assume 365 days in a year and that all customers pay either immediately or on the 25th day. All rates given below are effective annual rates.
A 2 year corporate bond yields 3% pa with a coupon rate of 5% pa, paid semi-annually.
Find the effective monthly rate, effective six month rate, and effective annual rate.
##r_\text{eff monthly}##, ##r_\text{eff 6 month}##, ##r_\text{eff annual}##.
Acquirer firm plans to launch a takeover of Target firm. The deal is expected to create a present value of synergies totaling $2 million. A scrip offer will be made that pays the fair price for the target's shares plus 70% of the total synergy value.
| Firms Involved in the Takeover | ||
| Acquirer | Target | |
| Assets ($m) | 60 | 10 |
| Debt ($m) | 20 | 2 |
| Share price ($) | 10 | 8 |
| Number of shares (m) | 4 | 1 |
Ignore transaction costs and fees. Assume that the firms' debt and equity are fairly priced, and that each firms' debts' risk, yield and values remain constant. The acquisition is planned to occur immediately, so ignore the time value of money.
Calculate the merged firm's share price and total number of shares after the takeover has been completed.
In Australia in the 1980's, inflation was around 8% pa, and residential mortgage loan interest rates were around 14%.
In 2013, inflation was around 2.5% pa, and residential mortgage loan interest rates were around 4.5%.
If a person can afford constant mortgage loan payments of $2,000 per month, how much more can they borrow when interest rates are 4.5% pa compared with 14.0% pa?
Give your answer as a proportional increase over the amount you could borrow when interest rates were high ##(V_\text{high rates})##, so:
###\text{Proportional increase} = \dfrac{V_\text{low rates}-V_\text{high rates}}{V_\text{high rates}} ###
Assume that:
- Interest rates are expected to be constant over the life of the loan.
- Loans are interest-only and have a life of 30 years.
- Mortgage loan payments are made every month in arrears and all interest rates are given as annualised percentage rates (APR's) compounding per month.
An effective monthly return of 1% ##(r_\text{eff monthly})## is equivalent to an effective annual return ##(r_\text{eff annual})## of:
Question 834 option, delta, theta, gamma, standard deviation, Black-Scholes-Merton option pricing
Which of the following statements about an option (either a call or put) and its underlying stock is NOT correct?
| European Call Option | ||
| on a non-dividend paying stock | ||
| Description | Symbol | Quantity |
| Spot price ($) | ##S_0## | 20 |
| Strike price ($) | ##K_T## | 18 |
| Risk free cont. comp. rate (pa) | ##r## | 0.05 |
| Standard deviation of the stock's cont. comp. returns (pa) | ##\sigma## | 0.3 |
| Option maturity (years) | ##T## | 1 |
| Call option price ($) | ##c_0## | 3.939488 |
| Delta | ##\Delta = N[d_1]## | 0.747891 |
| ##N[d_2]## | ##N[d_2]## | 0.643514 |
| Gamma | ##\Gamma## | 0.053199 |
| Theta ($/year) | ##\Theta = \partial c / \partial T## | 1.566433 |
Which of the following statements about bond convexity is NOT correct?
Question 973 foreign exchange rate, monetary policy, no explanation
Suppose the market expects the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to increase the policy rate by 25 basis points at their next meeting. The current exchange rate is 0.8 USD per AUD.
Then unexpectedly, the RBA announce that they will leave the policy rate unchanged due to increasing unemployment and fears of a potential recession.
What do you expect to happen to Australia's exchange rate on the day when the surprise announcement is made? The Australian dollar is likely to: