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In finance, a convertible bond or convertible note or convertible debt (or a convertible debenture if it has a maturity of greater than 10 years) is a type of bond that the holder can convert into a specified number of shares of common stock in the issuing company or cash of equal value. It is a hybrid security with debt- and equity-like features. It originated in the mid-19th century, and was used by early speculators such as Jacob Little and Daniel Drew to counter market cornering. Convertible bonds are most often issued by companies with a low credit rating and high growth potential. To compensate for having additional value through the option to convert the bond to stock, a convertible bond typically has a coupon rate lower than that of similar, non-convertible debt. The investor receives the potential upside of conversion into equity while protecting downside with cash flow from the coupon payments and the return of principal upon maturity. These properties lead naturally to the idea of convertible arbitrage, where a long position in the convertible bond is balanced by a short position in the underlying equity. From the issuer's perspective, the key benefit of raising money by selling convertible bonds is a reduced cash interest payment. The advantage for companies of issuing convertible bonds is that, if the bonds are converted to stocks, companies' debt vanishes. However, in exchange for the benefit of reduced interest payments, the value of shareholder's equity is reduced due to the stock dilution expected when bondholders convert their bonds into new shares. ==Types== The underwriters have been quite innovative and provided various variations of the initial convertible structure. Although no clear classification formally exists in the financial market it is possible to segment the convertible universe into the following sub-types: *Vanilla convertible bonds are the most plain convertible structures. They grant the holder the right to convert into certain amount of shares determined according to a conversion price determined in advance. They may offer coupon regular payments during the life of the security and have a fixed maturity date where the nominal value of the bond is redeemable by the holder. This type is the most common convertible type and is typically providing the asymmetric returns profile and positive convexity often wrongly associated to the entire asset class: at maturity the holder would indeed either convert into shares or request the redemption at par depending on whether or not the stock price is above the conversion price. *Mandatory convertibles are a common variation of the vanilla subtype, especially on the US market. Mandatory convertible would force the holder to convert into shares at maturity—hence the term "Mandatory". Those securities would very often bear two conversion prices, making their profiles similar to a "risk reversal" option strategy. The first conversion price would limit the price where the investor would receive the equivalent of its par value back in shares, the second would delimit where the investor will earn more than par. Note that if the stock price is below the first conversion price the investor would suffer a capital loss compared to its original investment (excluding the potential coupon payments). Mandatory convertibles can be compared to forward selling of equity at a premium. *Reverse convertibles are a less common variation, mostly issued synthetically. They would be opposite of the vanilla structure: the conversion price would act as a knock-in short call option: as the stock price drops below the conversion price the investor would start to be exposed the underlying stock performance and no longer able to redeem at par its bond. This negative convexity would be compensated by a usually high regular coupon payment. *Packaged convertibles or sometimes "bond + option" structures are simply a straight bonds and a call option/warrant wrapped together. Usually the investor would be able to then trade both legs separately. Although the initial payoff is similar to a plain vanilla one, the Packaged Convertibles would then have different dynamics and risks associated with them since at maturity the holder would not receive some cash or shares but some cash and potentially some share. They would for instance miss the modified duration mitigation effect usual with plain vanilla convertibles structures. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Convertible bond」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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