Overview

As a result of prevailing monetary conditions since the global financial crisis, the world has witnessed unprecedented growth in global corporate credit markets. Yet, despite the trillions of dollars put to work in the debt capital markets, corporate credit is still an unfamiliar concept to most investors compared to other asset classes, such as equities and commodities. Every red-top newspaper and 24-hour news service is happy to report the latest twitch in the Dow, FTSE or Stoxx indices but momentous moves in the iBoxx or iTraxx go unmentioned. And whereas many a talking head is happy to pose as an equity analyst, few feel comfortable venturing into the arcana of credit. Yet the corporate credit market, as the authors of this new book show, is both materially larger than its equity peer and has shown more attractive risk/reward characteristics over the last 90-odd years. In Opening Credit, career credit professionals, Justin McGowan and Duncan Sankey, aim to redress this by drawing on their more than 50 years' collective experience in the field to elucidate a practitioner's approach to corporate credit investment.Whilst explaining the basics of traditional credit analysis and affirming its value, McGowan and Sankey also caution against its shortcomings. They demonstrate the need both to penetrate the veil of accounting to get to the economic reality behind the annuals and interim numbers and to analyse the individuals that drive them - the key executives and board members. They employ a range of cogent and easy-to-follow case studies to illustrate the value of their executive- and governance-led approach, which places management front and centre in understanding corporate credit. Opening Credit will appeal to all those seeking a better understanding of corporate credit, including analysts looking to develop their skills, fund managers (especially those with an eye to SRI), bankers, IFAs, financial journalists, academics and students of finance.

Full Product Details

Author:   Justin McGowan ,  Duncan Sankey
Publisher:   Harriman House Publishing
Imprint:   Harriman House Publishing
Dimensions:   Width: 17.00cm , Height: 1.60cm , Length: 24.40cm
Weight:   0.599kg
ISBN:  

9780857192424

ISBN 10:   0857192426
Pages:   248
Publication Date:   08 May 2015
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock  
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Table of Contents

"Introduction: Credit: An Insider's View? - For whom is this book intended? - Objectives of this Book - Credit Analysis - The Gulf between Theory and Practice - What's the Matter with Traditional Credit Analysis as a Means of Making Money? - Prediction is Very Difficult, Especially About the Future I. Management and Governance. A Qualitative Overlay to Investment Decisions - Why does this matter? - The Nature of the Corporation - A Fundamental Ambiguity - The Corporation as a Legal Conceit - The Relationship between Senior Management and Corporate Identity - Good Credit Analysis Examines the C-Suite - Agency Outweighs Ownership - Alternative Ownership Models - Nothing's Perfect - Ownership is too Atomised to Exert Control - A Fundamental Change in the Power Dynamic - Regulatory Response - So Far, Largely Ineffectual - SarbOx - A Tentative Incursion into the Field - Regulatory Codes - Focus of Regulatory Responses - Regulation Likely to Remain Behind the Curve - Tying these Themes Together from a Credit Perspective II. Management and Governance Case Studies - Case Study I: Chesapeake Energy Corp. - Background - Changes to the Board - Boardroom Relationships Hinted at Risk Appetite - Case Study II. The Royal Bank of Scotland Group plc - The Shortcomings of Corporate Grandees - Another Dense Social Network - Think Global. Hire Local - Testing the Limits of Compartmentalisation - Key Governance Conclusions for Credit Assessment - Separation of Responsibilities - Remuneration Structures - Remuneration: Another Yellow Flag - Board Memberships: Independence and Expertise - Qualitative Investigation - Governance: A Crucial Supplement to the Financial Model III. Traditional Credit Analysis. A Framework for Relative Value - Overview of the discipline - 1. Economic Context - 2. Sovereign Risk - 3. Company Scale & Cyclicality - 4. Maturity and Growth Prospects - 5. Obsolescence and Substitution - 6. Capital, Asset and Labour Intensity - 7. Numbers Focus - Key Touchstones of Creditworthininess - 8. Cash Cycle and Seasonality - 9. Growth, Margin and Capital Formation - 10. Shareholders and Shareholder Activism - 11. Quantitative, Market-based Credit Systems - 12. Disclosure - 13. Relative Positioning on a Scale of Creditworthiness IV. How Managements Present Reality 1) Introduction - Reducing Credit to a Numbers Game - ""Soft"" Factors Can Predominate - But Numbers Can Still be Revealing 2) Manipulation of the Income Statement - Application of Management Discretion - Revenue and Expense Recognition - Revenue Recognition Red Flags - Growth of ""Other"" Assets - Changing Revenue Recognition Timings - Other Forms of Revenue Manipulation 3) Depreciation policy - Conventional Presentation - Depreciation Policy Abuse - Waste Management Inc. Garbage in, Garbage Out 4) Capitalisation of Income Statement Items - M&A Smokescreen - Royal Ahold 5) Auditors - Madoff - Olympus 6) Balance Sheet Analysis - Inventory Valuation - Nicor Inc - Fixed Asset Revaluation - China Forestry - First Energy 7) Cash Flow Analysis - Receivables Sales and Securitisation - Meritor Inc. - Leases : Capital vs. Operating - Cashflow from Asset Churning - Melia S.A. - Cash Flow from Goodwill Impairment - Caterpillar Inc. - Conclusion V. Behind the Numbers - Adjusted Debt, Liquidity and Non-Credit Factors - Introduction I. Adjustments for off-Balance Sheet Liabilities - Pension Deficits and OPEBs - Leases - Case Study: Leases. There's No Place Like Home - From Adjusted Debt to Adjusted Leverage II. Event Risk - Case Study: BP and the Macondo Oil Spill III. Liquidity Analysis - Case Study I: The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company - Case Study II: Clear Channel Communications IV. Analysis of Non-Credit Factors that Drive Credit - LBO Case Study I: VNU/Nielsen - LBO Case Study II: TXU. Take a Walk on the Wilder Side VI. How Market Considerations Drive Credit - Why sound fundamental analysis may not make you a penny - Credit Markets are Large but Illiquid - Credit Default Swaps (CDS) - Market Impact of CDOs and CLOs - The Role of the Ratings Agencies - Case Study - Lafarge S.A. - Indexation and Total Return Investing - New Issues - Turning Analysis into Alpha - Instruments available to the Credit Investor - Relative Value Investing - Predicting the Default Horizon - Case Study - Aiful Corporation - Conclusions And Finally"

Reviews

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Author Information

Author Website:   http://www.harriman-house.com/pages/authors.htm?Index=17370&Author=Duncan_Sankey

Justin McGowan's career in finance spans 25 years. His analytical experience covers the full range of the capital structure, in both equity and credit instruments and he has worked on the sell- and buy-sides in disciplines ranging from bank loans, corporate bonds, emerging market equities, long/short equity and credit hedge funds, long-only funds and synthetic credit products. After an early apprenticeship in corporate finance, spent largely in Southern European markets, he moved on to work at a major credit ratings agency in New York and London, where he focused on the energy sector and subsequently on Germany's Mittelstand issuers across a wide range of industries. Thereafter, he became an I.I.-rated emerging markets equity analyst and director of research, working principally out of New York, Mexico City and Rio de Janeiro. Returning to his native England in 2001, he re-entered the world of credit, where he has worked ever since. He has advised on investments in corporations and parastatal entities in the financial, manufacturing, energy, natural resources, retailing, consumer, healthcare and media sectors globally. Justin has an MA in Medieval and Modern Languages from St Edmund Hall, Oxford. He is a holder of the Investment Management Certificate. He lives in Surrey with his wife and two daughters. Duncan Sankey has 27 years' experience in credit investment and lending in a career spanning commercial and investment banking, a leading rating agency, the origination and management of sell-side research teams and, most recently, fund management, including investment in alternative strategies and structured corporate credit. His analytical experience has covered the full gamut from financials and corporates (utilities, autos and suppliers, industrials, leisure, consumer products, transportation and real estate) to sovereigns, supra-sovereigns and parastatals. His experience of credit analysis and investment encompasses both established and emerging markets (particularly those of Asia and Eastern Europe) and he has worked in London, New York and Atlanta. As a practitioner of credit in the wake of the corporate scandals during the first few years of the millennium, he became increasingly interested in the role played by corporate governance. This led him to pursue studies in the topic in the academic arena, where he has written on such matters as the bond market's failure to adopt standardised comprehensive bond covenants and contributed to published academic research on governance, regulation and financial market instability and its impact on policy. Duncan has written on credit issues for trade journals, discussed them on financial TV and often presents on credit matters to industry conferences. He is an associate of the London Centre for Corporate Governance and Ethics and a member of the Examinations and Education Committee of the Chartered Financial Analyst Society UK. Duncan has an MSc in Corporate Governance and Ethics from the University of London and an MA in Medieval and Modern Languages from St. Edmund Hall, Oxford. He lives in London with his wife and daughter. The authors have worked together for over 20 years. Since 2005 and 2003, respectively, Justin and Duncan have both worked in the award-winning corporate credit team of Cheyne Capital Management, one of Europe's leading alternative credit managers, participating in the management of both long-biased and long/short credit strategies specialising in global investment-grade and crossover corporate credit. Cheyne's long-only corporate credit funds have compounded at approximately 17% per annum since 2002 and have recorded cumulative default losses of only 0.34% over that period, despite navigating some of the worst market conditions ever experienced.

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Author Website:   http://www.harriman-house.com/pages/authors.htm?Index=17370&Author=Duncan_Sankey

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