Question 96 bond pricing, zero coupon bond, term structure of interest rates, forward interest rate
An Australian company just issued two bonds paying semi-annual coupons:
- 1 year zero coupon bond at a yield of 8% pa, and a
- 2 year zero coupon bond at a yield of 10% 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.
An established mining firm announces that it expects large losses over the following year due to flooding which has temporarily stalled production at its mines. Which statement(s) are correct?
(i) If the firm adheres to a full dividend payout policy it will not pay any dividends over the following year.
(ii) If the firm wants to signal that the loss is temporary it will maintain the same level of dividends. It can do this so long as it has enough retained profits.
(iii) By law, the firm will be unable to pay a dividend over the following year because it cannot pay a dividend when it makes a loss.
Select the most correct response:
Two risky stocks A and B comprise an equal-weighted portfolio. The correlation between the stocks' returns is 70%.
If the variance of stock A's returns increases but the:
- Prices and expected returns of each stock stays the same,
- Variance of stock B's returns stays the same,
- Correlation of returns between the stocks stays the same.
Which of the following statements is NOT correct?
Your friend is trying to find the net present value of an investment which:
- Costs $1 million initially (t=0); and
- Pays a single positive cash flow of $1.1 million in one year (t=1).
The investment has a total required return of 10% pa due to its moderate level of undiversifiable risk.
Your friend is aware of the importance of opportunity costs and the time value of money, but he is unsure of how to find the NPV of the project.
He knows that the opportunity cost of investing the $1m in the project is the expected gain from investing the money in shares instead. Like the project, shares also have an expected return of 10% since they have moderate undiversifiable risk. This opportunity cost is $0.1m ##(=1m \times 10\%)## which occurs in one year (t=1).
He knows that the time value of money should be accounted for, and this can be done by finding the present value of the cash flows in one year.
Your friend has listed a few different ways to find the NPV which are written down below.
Method 1: ##-1m + \dfrac{1.1m}{(1+0.1)^1} ##
Method 2: ##-1m + 1.1m - 1m \times 0.1 ##
Method 3: ##-1m + \dfrac{1.1m}{(1+0.1)^1} - 1m \times 0.1 ##
Which of the above calculations give the correct NPV? Select the most correct answer.
One formula for calculating a levered firm's free cash flow (FFCF, or CFFA) is to use net operating profit after tax (NOPAT).
###\begin{aligned} FFCF &= NOPAT + Depr - CapEx -\Delta NWC \\ &= (Rev - COGS - Depr - FC)(1-t_c) + Depr - CapEx -\Delta NWC \\ \end{aligned} \\###
Question 536 idiom, bond pricing, capital structure, leverage
The expression 'my word is my bond' is often used in everyday language to make a serious promise.
Why do you think this expression uses the metaphor of a bond rather than a share?
Question 664 real and nominal returns and cash flows, inflation, no explanation
What is the present value of real payments of $100 every year forever, with the first payment in one year? The nominal discount rate is 7% pa and the inflation rate is 4% pa.
Question 693 boot strapping zero coupon yield, forward interest rate, term structure of interest rates
Information about three risk free Government bonds is given in the table below.
| Federal Treasury Bond Data | ||||
| Maturity | Yield to maturity | Coupon rate | Face value | Price |
| (years) | (pa, compounding semi-annually) | (pa, paid semi-annually) | ($) | ($) |
| 0.5 | 3% | 4% | 100 | 100.4926 |
| 1 | 4% | 4% | 100 | 100.0000 |
| 1.5 | 5% | 4% | 100 | 98.5720 |
Based on the above government bonds' yields to maturity, which of the below statements about the spot zero rates and forward zero rates is NOT correct?
In the dividend discount model (DDM), share prices fall when dividends are paid. Let the high price before the fall be called the peak, and the low price after the fall be called the trough.
###P_0=\dfrac{C_1}{r-g}###
Which of the following statements about the DDM is NOT correct?
Question 787 fixed for floating interest rate swap, intermediated swap
The below table summarises the borrowing costs confronting two companies A and B.
| Bond Market Yields | ||||
| Fixed Yield to Maturity (%pa) | Floating Yield (%pa) | |||
| Firm A | 2 | L - 0.1 | ||
| Firm B | 2.5 | L | ||
Firm A wishes to borrow at a floating rate and Firm B wishes to borrow at a fixed rate. Design an intermediated swap (which means there will actually be two swaps) that nets a bank 0.15% and grants the remaining swap benefits to Firm A only. Which of the following statements about the swap is NOT correct?