Bond Ratings and Default Spread

This lecture covers the importance of bond ratings, how they are constructed, and who pays for them. It also delves into Moody's methodology for rating industries, the differences between rating agencies, and how default rates vary between investment-grade and speculative-grade bonds. The lecture further explores the relationship between corporate taxes, leverage, and the optimal capital structure of a firm, using real-world examples from companies like US Airways and Nestlé. Additionally, it discusses the impact of dividends, share repurchases, and the concept of giving money back to shareholders when a firm lacks profitable investment opportunities.

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MGT-301: Foundations in financial economics

The aim of this course is to expose EPFL bachelor students to some of the main areas in financial economics. The course will be organized around six themes. Students will obtain both practical insight

Capital structure substitution theory

In finance, the capital structure substitution theory (CSS) describes the relationship between earnings, stock price and capital structure of public companies. The CSS theory hypothesizes that managements of public companies manipulate capital structure such that earnings per share (EPS) are maximized. Managements have an incentive to do so because shareholders and analysts value EPS growth.

Trade-off theory of capital structure

The trade-off theory of capital structure is the idea that a company chooses how much debt finance and how much equity finance to use by balancing the costs and benefits. The classical version of the hypothesis goes back to Kraus and Litzenberger who considered a balance between the dead-weight costs of bankruptcy and the tax saving benefits of debt. Often agency costs are also included in the balance. This theory is often set up as a competitor theory to the pecking order theory of capital structure.

Share capital

A corporation's share capital, commonly referred to as capital stock in the United States, is the portion of a corporation's equity that has been derived by the issue of shares in the corporation to a shareholder, usually for cash. "Share capital" may also denote the number and types of shares that compose a corporation's share structure. In accounting, the share capital of a corporation is the nominal value of issued shares (that is, the sum of their par values, sometimes indicated on share certificates).

Cost of capital

In economics and accounting, the cost of capital is the cost of a company's funds (both debt and equity), or from an investor's point of view is "the required rate of return on a portfolio company's existing securities". It is used to evaluate new projects of a company. It is the minimum return that investors expect for providing capital to the company, thus setting a benchmark that a new project has to meet. For an investment to be worthwhile, the expected return on capital has to be higher than the cost of capital.

Credit rating agency

A credit rating agency (CRA, also called a ratings service) is a company that assigns credit ratings, which rate a debtor's ability to pay back debt by making timely principal and interest payments and the likelihood of default. An agency may rate the creditworthiness of issuers of debt obligations, of debt instruments, and in some cases, of the servicers of the underlying debt, but not of individual consumers. Other forms of a rating agency include environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) rating agencies and the Chinese Social Credit System.

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Delves into the Modigliani/Miller Theorem, showing how a firm's value remains unaffected by its capital structure in perfect markets.

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Explores the impact of debt and taxes on firm value and shareholder wealth, covering Modigliani/Miller theorem, leverage effects, debt financing mechanics, and valuation methods.