Synthetic floating-rate debt: An example of an asset-driven liability structure.

• Autores: James Adams, Donald J. Smith
• Localización: Journal of Applied Corporate Finance, ISSN-e 1745-6622, Vol. 25, Nº. 4, 2013, págs. 50-59
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • An asset-driven liability (ADL) structure is analogous to a liability-driven investment (LDI) strategy. In both cases, the intent is to reduce the risk arising from a mismatch of assets and liabilities by aligning the interest rate sensitivity of cash flows on both sides of the balance sheet. Increasingly, defined-benefit pension plans have adopted LDI strategies that reduce their equity assets and increase the average duration of their debt assets to better match the typical long duration of their retirement obligations to its employees. To illustrate the concept of ADL, the authors use the example of a corporate issue of traditional fixed-rate debt that is transformed into synthetic floating-rate debt using an interest rate swap (in which the corporation receives the fixed rate on the swap and pays at money market reference rate like three-month LIBOR). The use of such long-term, floating-rate debt reduces interest rate risk when the firm has operating revenues that are positively correlated to the business cycle. However, a problem arises in that there is limited demand for such debt securities from institutional investors, many of which, because of LDI guidelines, prefer long-term, fixed-rate securities. Derivatives provide a way of resolving this mismatch between issuer and investor interests. In the article, the authors present a detailed example of the cash flows on the 'receive-fixed' interest rate swap (and its valuation for financial reporting) to show how the synthetic ADL debt structure obtains the desired outcome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]