Reference no: EM13495568 , Length: 20
                                                                               
                                       
Mr.  Weissjustbought a zero-coupon bond issued by Risky Corp. for $870, with  $1000 face value and one year to mature. He believes that the market  will be in expansion with probability 0.9 and in recession with  probability 0.1. In the event of expansion, Risky Corp. can always repay  the debt. In the event of recession, the companywould fail to meet its  debt obligation. The bondholders would recover nothing and completely  lose their investment, should the firm default. A zero-coupon government  bond with the same maturity and face value is selling at $952.38.Assume  that the government never defaults. The expected value and the standard  deviation of the return of the market portfolio are 15% and 30%,  respectively. Risky Corp's bond return has a correlation of 0.67 with  the market portfolio return. Assume that interest is compounded  annually.
(a)  Suppose Mr. Weiss holds the bond to maturity. What will behis holding  period return if Risky Corp. does not default? What will be his holding  period return if the firm defaults?
(b) What is the expected return of the Risky Corp. bond? Is the bond risky or riskfree? Explain.
(c) What is the YTM of the government bond? Is this YTM the riskfree rate? Explain.
(d)  Compare the expected return of the Risky Corp. bond with the riskfree  rate.  Would a risk-averse investor buy the Risky Corp. bond at $870?  Explain.
(e) The  standard deviation of the return of the Risky Corp. bond is 34.48%.What  is the beta of the bond? What would be the equilibrium expected return  of the Risky Corp. bond if the CAPM holds? Does Mr. Weiss overvalue or  undervalue the bondrelative to the CAPM?
(f)  Suppose Mr. Weiss changes his mind and sells his Risky Corp. bond. He  invests in a portfolio that allocates 50% of the money on the market  portfolio, and the other 50% on the government bond. What are the  expected value and the standard deviation of his portfolio return? Is  his portfolio efficient? Explain.