Bond refunding
Subordinated debentures of Swan Song Ltd. have been outstanding for 7 years and have 8 years to maturity at their face value of $90 million. The annual interest rate on the bonds is 7.0 percent but current yields in the marketplace suggest new subordinated debentures could be issued to yield 5.50 percent.
A junior analyst in the company is surprised to find each $1,000 bond trading at $1,050 instead of her calculation of $1,096.03 based on PV analysis. It is then that she realizes the bond has a call premium and the bonds are priced efficiently at the call price. Including underwriting fees the borrowing costs of a new issue would be $1.6 million.
Currently T-bills yield 2.4 percent and a 30 day overlap period is expected. Swan Song has a tax rate of 28%.
The junior analyst therefore prepares an analysis to see if refunding the issue is justified. Is it?