How would you value this?

Convertible bond. Face of 500. If the underlying equity doubles in 5 years, you get 1,000 (cash or equity). So it's up 100pct. If not, you just get your 500 principal.

I'm thinking this is a bond with a binary option? But not sure.

6 Comments
 

how i see it:

the conversion seems useless if its 100 cash or equity. convertibles only add value b/c equity from conversion can be worth more than the bond's face.

you just need probability of the equity doubling. Value = P(Double)1000 + P(1-Double)500

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Converts don't look like that. You're saying you get 100% of the upside of the stock if it's up, and you get face value if it's down? You can't have both.

 
SirTradesaLotConverts don't look like that. You're saying you get 100% of the upside of the stock if it's up, and you get face value if it's down? You can't have both.

This is obviously not an exchange-traded instrument; this is something I'm thinking about putting into a deal structure to lower our cost base. The point is that instead of giving $1,000 of equity, we're guaranteeing $500 and the possibility of $1,000 if the equity doubles.

 
Best Response
mrb87
SirTradesaLotConverts don't look like that. You're saying you get 100% of the upside of the stock if it's up, and you get face value if it's down? You can't have both.

This is obviously not an exchange-traded instrument; this is something I'm thinking about putting into a deal structure to lower our cost base. The point is that instead of giving $1,000 of equity, we're guaranteeing $500 and the possibility of $1,000 if the equity doubles.

I think I misread the question as well. I didn't catch that it was only if the equity doubled the convert paid anything. You can approximate the price of a binary by doing a very tight call spread. Let's say this stock is trading for $50/share. The issuer could sell a call with a strike of 99.9 and buy a call at 100 (selling a call spread). The options only payoff if the stock doubles and it's a limited future liability to the issuer. This spread obviously won't be worth much, so you would have to sell a lot of them. Calculate the number you need to sell by the payoff needed divided by the width of the call spread. Or, you can just look up the formula for a digital option.

The tricky part is what vol do you use? Most likely there are no comparable listed options.

 

You need a strike on the Convertible, as the question is phrased you're saying that the conversion price is 0, if this is the question, the value of the covertible is 500 today, don't wait for next year. If the strike is 500, re the conversion is at the money on Day 1, then the upside is actually 500.

Regardless of what the actual numbers in the question should be, I'd approach as a binary tree with five stages and Std. Dev equal to 14.8%, enough that in the positive of each stage gets you to 1000, all discounted back to today.

 

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