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Question 12  bond pricing

For a price of $100, Carol will sell you a 5 year bond paying semi-annual coupons of 16% pa. The face value of the bond is $100. Other bonds with similar risk, maturity and coupon characteristics trade at a yield of 12% pa.

Would you like to her bond or politely ?


Question 30  income and capital returns

A share was bought for $20 (at t=0) and paid its annual dividend of $3 one year later (at t=1). Just after the dividend was paid, the share price was $16 (at t=1). What was the total return, capital return and income return? Calculate your answers as effective annual rates.

The choices are given in the same order: ## r_\text{total},r_\text{capital},r_\text{income} ##.



Question 236  diversification, correlation, risk

Diversification in a portfolio of two assets works best when the correlation between their returns is:



Question 240  negative gearing, interest tax shield

Unrestricted negative gearing is allowed in Australia, New Zealand and Japan. Negative gearing laws allow income losses on investment properties to be deducted from a tax-payer's pre-tax personal income. Negatively geared investors benefit from this tax advantage. They also hope to benefit from capital gains which exceed the income losses.

For example, a property investor buys an apartment funded by an interest only mortgage loan. Interest expense is $2,000 per month. The rental payments received from the tenant living on the property are $1,500 per month. The investor can deduct this income loss of $500 per month from his pre-tax personal income. If his personal marginal tax rate is 46.5%, this saves $232.5 per month in personal income tax.

The advantage of negative gearing is an example of the benefits of:



Question 340  market efficiency, opportunity cost

A managed fund charges fees based on the amount of money that you keep with them. The fee is 2% of the start-of-year amount, but it is paid at the end of every year.

This fee is charged regardless of whether the fund makes gains or losses on your money.

The fund offers to invest your money in shares which have an expected return of 10% pa before fees.

You are thinking of investing $100,000 in the fund and keeping it there for 40 years when you plan to retire.

What is the Net Present Value (NPV) of investing your money in the fund? Note that the question is not asking how much money you will have in 40 years, it is asking: what is the NPV of investing in the fund? Assume that:

  • The fund has no private information.
  • Markets are weak and semi-strong form efficient.
  • The fund's transaction costs are negligible.
  • The cost and trouble of investing your money in shares by yourself, without the managed fund, is negligible.



Question 424  takeover

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 cash offer will be made that pays the fair price for the target's shares plus 70% of the total synergy value. The cash will be paid out of the firm's cash holdings, no new debt or equity will be raised.

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.



Question 535  DDM, real and nominal returns and cash flows, stock pricing

You are an equities analyst trying to value the equity of the Australian telecoms company Telstra, with ticker TLS. In Australia, listed companies like Telstra tend to pay dividends every 6 months. The payment around August is called the final dividend and the payment around February is called the interim dividend. Both occur annually.

  • Today is mid-March 2015.
  • TLS's last interim dividend of $0.15 was one month ago in mid-February 2015.
  • TLS's last final dividend of $0.15 was seven months ago in mid-August 2014.

Judging by TLS's dividend history and prospects, you estimate that the nominal dividend growth rate will be 1% pa. Assume that TLS's total nominal cost of equity is 6% pa. The dividends are nominal cash flows and the inflation rate is 2.5% pa. All rates are quoted as nominal effective annual rates. Assume that each month is exactly one twelfth (1/12) of a year, so you can ignore the number of days in each month.

Calculate the current TLS share price.



Question 605  cross currency interest rate parity, foreign exchange rate

If the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to keep its interbank overnight cash rate at 2% pa while the US Federal Reserve is expected to keep its federal funds rate at 0% pa over the next year, is the AUD is expected to , , or remain against the USD over the next year?


Question 858  indirect security, intermediated finance, no explanation

Which of the following transactions involves an ‘indirect security’ using a ‘financial intermediary’?



Question 891  foreign exchange rate, monetary policy, no explanation

Suppose the market expects the Bank of Japan (BoJ) to decrease their short term interest rate by 15 basis points at their next meeting. The current short term interest rate is -0.1% pa and the exchange rate is 100 JPY per USD.

Then unexpectedly, the BoJ announce that they will leave the short term interest rate unchanged.

What do you expect to happen to Japan’s exchange rate on the day when the surprise announcement is made? The Japanese Yen (JPY) is likely to suddenly: