Liquidation Triggers and the Valuation of Equity and Debt

Net-worth covenants, as introduced by Black and Cox (1976), provide the firm’s bondholders with the right to force reorganization or liquidation if the value of the firm falls below a certain threshold. In the event of default, however, many bankruptcy codes stipulate an automatic stay of assets that prevent bondholders from triggering liquidation and thus impact many positive net-worth covenants. To consider this impact on a corporation’s capital structure we develop a general model of liquidation driven by a liquidation trigger. This trigger accumulates with time and severity of distress. In addition, current distress periods may have greater weight than old ones. The tractability of the approach stems from its ability to allow parameters appropriate for different legal rules and types of bondholder safety covenants. The proposed model includes several well-known models, like Merton, Black- Cox and others. We show how to valuate various types of corporate securities by using this model. Numerical results and sensitivity analysis are presented for selected basic cases.default, bankruptcy, liquidation trigger, debt pricing, corporate finance

Auctioning Sovereign Bonds: A Global Cross-Section Investigation of the Price Mechanism

Many financial assets, especially government bonds, are issued by an auction. An important feature of the design is the auction pricing mechanism: Uniform vs. Discriminatory. Theoretical papers do not provide a definite answer regarding the dominance of one type of auction over the other. We investigate the revealed preferences of the issuers by surveying the sovereign issuers that conduct auctions. We find that the majority of the issuers/countries in our sample use a discriminatory auction mechanism for issuing government debt securities. We use a multinomial logit procedure and discriminatory analysis to investigate the mechanism choice. It was interesting to find that market oriented economies and those that practice Common law tend to use a uniform method while economies who are less market oriented and practice Civil law tend to use discriminatory price auctions

Endogenizing Bidders Choice in Divisible Goods Auctions

Many financial assets, especially government bonds, are issued by an auction mechanism. An important feature of the design is the auction pricing mechanism: Uniform vs. Discriminatory. Theoretical papers do not provide a definite answer regarding the preference of one mechanism over the other. Experimental papers investigated the issue under an exogenous equal number of bidders. We investigate the bidders’ choice and the impact of that choice on the outcome of the auction by letting them choose between the two alternative systems. The majority of the bidders in the survey have chosen the uniform method. Those that prefer the uniform auction bid, on average, more aggressively than those that choose the discriminatory one. On average the revenues to the issuer were higher under the uniform price mechanism

Energizing Bidder's Choice in Financial Assets Auctions - An Experimental Investigation

The objective of this paper is to investigate the preferences of potential bidders in choosing between uniform and discriminatory auction pricing methods. Many financial assets, particularly government bonds, are issued in an auction. Uniform and discriminatory pricing constitute the two most popular mechanisms used in public auctions. Theoretical papers have not been able to provide an unequivocal preference of one mechanism over the other. This study investigates both bidder choice and the impact of that choice on the outcome of the auction by allowing bidders to choose between the two alternative systems. The majority of the bidders in the survey prefer uniform pricing. Those preferring uniform auctions tend to bid more aggressively than those preferring discriminatory. On average, the proceeds to the issuer were higher under the uniform price mechanism

Default Risk and Equity Returns: A Comparison of the Bank-Based German and the U.S. Financial System

In this paper, we address the question whether the impact of default risk on equity returns depends on the financial system firms operate in. Using an implementation of Merton's option-pricing model for the value of equity to estimate firms' default risk, we construct a factor that measures the excess return of firms with low default risk over firms with high default risk. We then compare results from asset pricing tests for the German and the U.S. stock markets. Since Germany is the prime example of a bank-based financial system, where debt is supposedly a major instrument of corporate governance, we expect that a systematic default risk effect on equity returns should be more pronounced for German rather than U.S. firms. Our evidence suggests that a higher firm default risk systematically leads to lower returns in both capital markets. This contradicts some previous results for the U.S. by Vassalou/Xing (2004), but we show that their default risk factor looses its explanatory power if one includes a default risk factor measured as a factor mimicking portfolio. It further turns out that the composition of corporate debt affects equity returns in Germany. Firms' default risk sensitivities are attenuated the more a firm depends on bank debt financing

Investigation of hospital discharge cases and SARS-CoV-2 introduction into Lothian care homes

Background The first epidemic wave of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Scotland resulted in high case numbers and mortality in care homes. In Lothian, over one-third of care homes reported an outbreak, while there was limited testing of hospital patients discharged to care homes. Aim To investigate patients discharged from hospitals as a source of SARS-CoV-2 introduction into care homes during the first epidemic wave. Methods A clinical review was performed for all patients discharges from hospitals to care homes from 1st March 2020 to 31st May 2020. Episodes were ruled out based on coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) test history, clinical assessment at discharge, whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data and an infectious period of 14 days. Clinical samples were processed for WGS, and consensus genomes generated were used for analysis using Cluster Investigation and Virus Epidemiological Tool software. Patient timelines were obtained using electronic hospital records. Findings In total, 787 patients discharged from hospitals to care homes were identified. Of these, 776 (99%) were ruled out for subsequent introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into care homes. However, for 10 episodes, the results were inconclusive as there was low genomic diversity in consensus genomes or no sequencing data were available. Only one discharge episode had a genomic, time and location link to positive cases during hospital admission, leading to 10 positive cases in their care home. Conclusion The majority of patients discharged from hospitals were ruled out for introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into care homes, highlighting the importance of screening all new admissions when faced with a novel emerging virus and no available vaccine

SARS-CoV-2 Omicron is an immune escape variant with an altered cell entry pathway

Vaccines based on the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 are a cornerstone of the public health response to COVID-19. The emergence of hypermutated, increasingly transmissible variants of concern (VOCs) threaten this strategy. Omicron (B.1.1.529), the fifth VOC to be described, harbours multiple amino acid mutations in spike, half of which lie within the receptor-binding domain. Here we demonstrate substantial evasion of neutralization by Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants in vitro using sera from individuals vaccinated with ChAdOx1, BNT162b2 and mRNA-1273. These data were mirrored by a substantial reduction in real-world vaccine effectiveness that was partially restored by booster vaccination. The Omicron variants BA.1 and BA.2 did not induce cell syncytia in vitro and favoured a TMPRSS2-independent endosomal entry pathway, these phenotypes mapping to distinct regions of the spike protein. Impaired cell fusion was determined by the receptor-binding domain, while endosomal entry mapped to the S2 domain. Such marked changes in antigenicity and replicative biology may underlie the rapid global spread and altered pathogenicity of the Omicron variant