Charles River Associates is considering whether to call either of the two perpetual bond issues the company currently has outstanding. If the bond is called, it will be refunded, that is, a new bond issue will be made with a lower coupon rate. The proceeds from the new bond issue will be used to repurchase one of the existing bond issues. The information about the two currently outstanding bond issues is:
Bond A Bond B
Coupon rate 7 % 8 %
Value outstanding $ 138,000,000 $ 145,000,000
Call premium 7.6 % 8.2 %
Transaction cost of refunding $ 12,800,000 $ 19,500,000
Current YTM 6.25 % 6.9 %
The corporate tax rate is 40 percent.
What is the NPV of the refunding for each bond?
NPV
Bond A $
Bond B $
Which, if either, bond should the company refinance?
Bond A
Bond B
Refund both bonds
Neither bond
2. Consider the prices of the following three Treasury issues as of February 24, 2012:
7.050 May 17 110.31250 110.37500 −12 5.39
8.030 May 17 107.43750 107.50000 −4 5.35
11.780 May 17 145.93750 146.12500 −14 5.43
The bond in the middle is callable in February 2013. What is the implied value of the call feature? (Hint: Is there a way to combine the two noncallable issues to create an issue that has the same coupon as the callable bond?) (Do not round intermediate calculations and round your final answer to 2 decimal places. (e.g., 32.16))
Call value$
