Issues Relating To High Yield Securities Junk Bonds

Details the rise and operation of the high yield debt market as illustrated by the "junk" bond.

Since financial myths exploded in the 1980s, the perspective of time creates a unique opportunity to update and expand the analysis begun in Glenn Yago's 1991 book, Junk Bonds: How High Yield Securities Restructured Corporate America (Oxford University Press). At the time of its publication, Junk Bonds drew controversial responses from the Federal Reserve and government agencies. In retrospect, the evidence clearly casts favorable light on the role of high yield securities. The research presented here demonstrates how financial innovations enabled capital access for industrial restructuring, capital and labor productivity gains, and improved global competitiveness. Enough time has now passed to allow this dispassionate empirical analysis to shear away the hype and hysteria that surrounded the Wall Street scandals, Washington controversies, and media frenzy of the time. Beyond Junk Bonds provides a one-stop data, reference and case study presentation of the firms and securities in the contemporary high yield market and the financial innovations that spurred growth in the nineties and will continue to finance the future. The high yield market incubated successive waves of financial technologies that now proliferate beyond junk bonds to all the dimensions and dynamics of global debt and equity capital markets. It charts the recovery of the market in the 1990s, the recent wave of fallen angels, distressed credits and defaults, and suggests how the high yield market will be recreated in the global market of the 21st century. It explicates the linkages between the high yield market, and other credit and equity markets in managing a firm's capital structure to execute its business strategy. The weakening of the U. S. economy in 2001 and the huge shock to Wall Street from the terrorist attacks of September 11 witnessed a historic increase in the yield to maturity of high yield bonds. Despite the volatility in the flow of funds to high yield mutual funds and occasionally sharp increases in non-investment grade debt yields, the asset class has been one of the best performing fixed income investments of the past decades. In fact, high yield bonds offer an attractive risk-reward ratio competitive with more traditional asset classes. Anyone active in corporate finance, financial institutions and capital markets will find this book a must read for interpreting and understanding the recent history both of the high yield marketplace and its interaction with private equity, public equity, and fixed income markets.

The junk bond, the fastest growing financial instrument of the 1980s, as been linked to all that is wrong with Wall Street. But in Junk Bonds, economist Glenn Yago argues that, despite the bad press, these high yield securities are still one of the most efficient and equitable ways for American companies to finance their futures. Yago points out that, before junk bonds, conservative investors like insurance companies, pension funds, and bank trust departments placed their capital primarily in investment-grade securities--and only five percent of the American companies with sales over $35 million qualify to issue investment grade bonds. In effect, ninety-five percent of the nation's mid-sized firms were frozen out of the public debt market. Junk bonds changed all that. In addition, Yago argues that the much-maligned divestitures associated with junk bond-funded buyouts were not necessarily destructive; many sold-off units, he writes, flourished under new management structures. Yago concludes that we have witnessed a fundamental restructuring of corporate America, made possible in part by high yield financing. The result is a bright future as American businesses return to productivity and competitiveness, one that will benefit managers, stockholders, and workers alike.

Unearth a Gold Mine in the $1 TRILLION Junk Bond Market “Few experts in this area have been willing to share their inside knowledge with the outside world. None have done it as well and as simply and clearly as Bob Levine has done in his new book.” —Joel Greenblatt, bestselling author of The Little Book That Beats the Market “A great book by a great investor. . . . [I] recommend this book to everyone who wants to acquire some invaluable horse sense about investing in high yield bonds.” —Martin S. Fridson, author of How to Be a Billionaire “This is the best book ever written on high yield corporate bond investing. Destined to become an instant classic. . . .” —Jack Malvey, Chief Global Markets Strategist, Bank of New York Mellon Corp. "A first-rate introduction and navigation guide to the high-yield world." —Reading the Markets “This well-written and occasionally humorous tutorial on investing in speculative-grade corporate debt covers the essential aspects of high-yield debt. . . . As a basic introduction to the high-yield debt market, the book can’t be beat.” —The Financial Analysts Journal Do you think of the junk bond market as an arena of chaos, a financial Wild West, a place to avoid at all costs? In How to Make Money with Junk Bonds, a pioneer of the junk bond business gives you the insight and information you need to lay that fear to rest—so that you can generate unprecedented profits in this $1 trillion market. Robert Levine has the credentials to lead both individual investors and the professionals just getting started in the junk bond market. At Nomura Corporate Research and Asset Management, his junk bond funds substantially outperformed both high yield and S&P indices for more than 18 years—and in this book he explains the method he used to achieve such remarkable results. Helping you pick high yield bonds that have a low possibility of default. How to Make Money with Junk Bonds covers: The difference between stocks and bonds—and where junk bonds fit between them in the risk spectrum How to conduct a thorough credit analysis—the key to making money in junk bonds How to evaluate market conditions—and decide when to invest and when to sit on the sidelines Why you should hire a portfolio manager—and how to select the best one for your needs How to invest like a pro—using Levine’s personal, proven investing method The junk bond market isn’t the scary place it used to be. Critical information is easier (and cheaper) to obtain, and transparency is greater than it was in the market’s early days. How to Make Money with Junk Bonds gives you the tools to root out strong, forward-looking companies poised for growth and generate a level of profitability impossible to achieve in other markets.