Debt and equity-linked
Securitisation
Equity
M&A
Private equity
Restructuring
Project finance
Debt and equity-linked
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| Left to right: David Lamb of Conyers Dill & Pearman; William Liu of Linklaters; Ken Olson of Merrill Lynch; Matthew Sheridan of Sidley Austin; Andrew Cooper of Merrill Lynch; Nigel Pridmore of Linklaters |
Country Garden convertible
Country Garden wanted to do a share buyback to take advantage of its low trading price. But doing this alone would have reduced the company's free-float, causing it to de-list. To stop this, the company decided to do a convertible bond with a synthetic share buyback.
Country Garden entered into a cash-settled total return swap with Merrill Lynch. With the share price set, Country Garden agreed to pay Merrill Lynch the difference if the share price went down, while Merrill agreed to pay the company the difference if it went up (as Country Garden hoped). Merrill then hedged itself through a contract with investors whereby the...