Background: The financial crisis in 2008 has led to a number of consequences for the financial sector. For banks, new stricter regulations with the Basel III accord will be implemented from 2013. The adaption to the new conditions has resulted in stricter lending policies, which means that is tougher for companies to get traditional bank loans. Companies have started to look for other funding alternatives and the corporate bond market has gained more attention and a clear trend of growth for this market has been seen during the last couple of years Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to examine the development of the corporate bond market in Sweden and analyze how this will impact the market participants and how they can adapt and utilize from it. Method: The research method used, in order to meet the purpose of this thesis, is mainly qualitative. The study it is based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with different market participants that have great knowledge regarding their specific field of expertise. To back this up and, in more detail, understand more exactly the pace of the growth, the interview have been complemented with statistics of the current market situation. Conclusion: The Swedish corporate bond market has experienced a significant growth during the last couple of years and this has affected a lot of actors on the financial markets that have adapted their business to the new prevailing conditions. All market participants agree that this development will continue and they highlight the importance for the development to be qualitative in order to get a sustainable market.

This dissertation explains the puzzling negative relationship between changes in stock volatility and credit spreads of corporate bonds. This relationship has been encountered in some empirical studies but has remained unexplained in the theoretical literature, which unanimously suggests the opposite relationship. This dissertation shows that this negative relationship can be produced by the dynamic endogenous asset composition of borrowing firms. On the one hand, higher asset volatility corresponds to lower future volatility of the firm's investments and lower credit spreads if the firm can reallocate resources optimally. On the other hand, short-term stock volatility corresponds to the current allocation of resources and thus increases with asset volatility. The combination of these two effects produces the negative relationship between changes in stock volatility and credit spreads. The empirical part of the dissertation shows that the relationship between changes in stock market volatility and credit spreads of long-term, high-quality corporate bonds (controlling for other variables) is negative, robust, and economically significant. Consistent with the predictions in this dissertation, the corresponding regression coefficient is a U-shaped function of the credit quality of the bonds. In addition, the dissertation shows that the relationship changes its sign in distressed market conditions and that a combination of normal and distressed market conditions can produce erroneous results.

This dissertation focuses on institutional investors in corporate bond markets and their impacts on the underlying corporate bonds. The dissertation is composed of three chapters. The first chapter studies how information networks of corporate bond mutual funds may be constructed. It highlights how information flow between corporate bond mutual funds affects fund performance, herding behaviors, and the underlying corporate bond market. By examining the trading behavior of corporate bond mutual funds, I show that bond funds in more central positions of a trading network have an informational advantage that results in 0.33% higher future fund risk-adjusted return. This positive relationship becomes stronger during periods of high market uncertainty and for bond funds with more liquid assets as they can respond to the information signal with a lower asset reallocation cost. I further show that manager turnover, ranking pressure, and fund flow fluctuation drive within-fund time varying changes in network centrality. The second chapter exploits the influence of information networks of corporate bond mutual funds on their underlying corporate bonds. I show that corporate bonds owned by highly network-central bond funds increase underlying liquidity, leading to a 3.5% decrease in future bid/ask spreads and a lower Amihud illiquidity measure. This is hypothesized to occur due to increased information efficiency, which allows for more bond specific information to be reflected in the price, and intensified herding behavior. Moreover, I construct a network to represent herding behavior by following the same trades across quarters. A 0.3% decrease in risk-adjusted fund return is found for bond funds that have the strongest herding behavior. The third chapter studies how corporate bond exchange-traded funds (ETF) impact the underlying corporate bond return comovement and how it relates to trading and arbitrage activities of corporate bond ETFs. The literature is silence about the effect of corporate bond ETFs on the comovement of underlying bond securities. This chapter aims to fill this gap by providing the first empirical evidence of bond return comovement driven by bond ETFs ownership. I find that bond ownership by corporate bond ETFs leads to higher bond return comovement, an increase of 0.26 in the beta of corporate bond return with respect to the aggregate bond portfolio. In contrast, bond ownership by other traditional institutional investors in the corporate bond market like bond mutual funds and insurance companies do not contribute to corporate bond return comovement. Furthermore, this chapter highlights that return comovement is driven by corporate bond ETFs’ creation and redemption activities.

Den svenska marknaden för företagsobligationer har vuxit i både volym och antal emittenter sedan finanskrisen 2007/2008. Marknaden genomgår fundamentala förändringar som kan påverka intresset för företagsobligationer bland marknadens aktörer. I februari 2015 trädde Finansinspektionens praxis för ökad transparens och öppenhet på marknaden för företagsobligationer i kraft. Litteraturstudien som genomförts inför uppsatsen uppmärksammade att utifrån ett teoretiskt perspektiv är det oklart vilken påverkan ökad transparens får på variabler som intresse, likviditet, konkurrens och kostnader. Syftet med denna uppsats är att beskriva samband mellan transparens och likviditet på den svenska marknaden för företagsobligationer. I en kvalitativ studie har 13 intervjuer med olika aktörer på företagsobligationsmarknaden analyserats med hjälp av teori skriven i ämnet. Generellt tycks marknadens aktörer eniga om att transparens är positivt, dock råder det delade meningar om vilken grad av transparens som är lämplig samt vilken påverkan transparens får på marknaden. Marknaden bör vara tillräckligt transparent för att investerare ska ha en tilltro att handla men graden av transparens ska inte heller missgynna market makers som ställer priser. / The Swedish corporate bond market has grown in both volume and number of issuers since the financial crisis in 2007/2008. The market is undergoing fundamental changes that may affect the attractiveness of corporate bonds among market participants. In February 2015 came the Swedish Financial Supervisory practices in force for increased transparency and openness in the corporate bond market. The literature review conducted for the paper indicates that, from a theoretical perspective it is unclear what impact increased transparency will have for variables such as interest, liquidity, competition and costs. The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship between transparency and liquidity in the Swedish market for corporate bonds. In a qualitative study, 13 interviews with various actors in the corporate bond market has been analyzed by using the theory written on the subject. In general, market participants seem to agree that transparency is positive, however, there are divided opinions on the appropriate degree of transparency and what impact transparency will have on the market. The market must be sufficiently transparent for investors to be confident to participate but the degree of transparency should not disfavor market makers whom set prices.

Wong, Tsz-Lim. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-51). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Reduced-Form Model --- p.5 / Chapter 2.1 --- Information and Probabilistic Framework --- p.6 / Chapter 2.2 --- Poisson and Cox Process --- p.6 / Chapter 2.3 --- The Building Blocks of Pricing --- p.8 / Chapter 2.4 --- Comparing the Recovery Models --- p.10 / Chapter 3 --- General Equilibrium Model --- p.12 / Chapter 3.1 --- State Variables --- p.12 / Chapter 3.2 --- Investment Opportunities --- p.14 / Chapter 3.3 --- Preferences --- p.15 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Term Structure of Defaultable Bonds --- p.17 / Chapter 4 --- Methodologies --- p.24 / Chapter 5 --- SNP and EMM --- p.27 / Chapter 5.1 --- SNP Density --- p.27 / Chapter 5.2 --- EMM Estimation --- p.29 / Chapter 6 --- Empirical Results --- p.31 / Chapter 6.1 --- Data Description --- p.31 / Chapter 6.2 --- Estimation Results --- p.33 / Chapter 7 --- Conclusion --- p.42 / Chapter A --- Extended Nelson and Siegel Model --- p.44 / Chapter B --- Moment-Matching of the CIR Model --- p.46 / Bibliography --- p.48

In the past, the Swedish bond market has been distinguished for its illiquidity and difficulties with retrieving information. This is the starting point of our thesis and the purpose is to analyze and describe the availability of the present corporate bond market for manufacturing firms in Sweden. In order to fulfill the purpose, a qualitative method was used and interviews with different operators of the market were conducted. Our respondents were sampled from large issuing companies, the major intermediaries and companies that have not tried bonds as a financing tool. To fulfill our purpose, we analyzed subjects as credit rating, capital market segmentation, regulations and volume. We came to the conclusion that the Swedish corporate bond market is somewhat underdeveloped. This is due to the lack of public information regarding the bonds, such as prices, outstanding bonds and interest rates. The availability for already active companies is good, mainly due to the important role the intermediaries play. The regulations set by authorities do not have great effect on the large companies in general, since they issue large amounts, the cost associated with the regulations do not affect them in a considerable way. One could rather see a positive side with the regulations, for example the increase of foreign issuers that entered the market the last couple of years and hence increasing the liquidity. A credit rating is sometimes beneficial but not always, it is not a necessity to enter the bond market. As a matter of fact, it seems like volume is the most important reason to why medium-sized companies have limited access to the market. Since the minimum recommended volume to issue is 50 million SEK, many companies are excluded due to lack of financing need. Another important factor concerning medium-sized companies is that they do not have sufficient experience, knowledge or interest in the bond market. There are probably companies that would like to enter the bond market, who do not have the opportunity to do so, but this do not have anything to do with the lack of credit rating, rather the high cost associated with it. The conclusion drawn is that it is hard to compare small and medium-sized companies with large already established actors. This is due to different need of capital and overall knowledge about the debt market.

<p>In the past, the Swedish bond market has been distinguished for its illiquidity and difficulties with retrieving information. This is the starting point of our thesis and the purpose is to analyze and describe the availability of the present corporate bond market for manufacturing firms in Sweden. In order to fulfill the purpose, a qualitative method was used and interviews with different operators of the market were conducted. Our respondents were sampled from large issuing companies, the major intermediaries and companies that have not tried bonds as a financing tool.</p><p>To fulfill our purpose, we analyzed subjects as credit rating, capital market segmentation, regulations and volume. We came to the conclusion that the Swedish corporate bond market is somewhat underdeveloped. This is due to the lack of public information regarding the bonds, such as prices, outstanding bonds and interest rates.</p><p>The availability for already active companies is good, mainly due to the important role the intermediaries play. The regulations set by authorities do not have great effect on the large companies in general, since they issue large amounts, the cost associated with the regulations do not affect them in a considerable way. One could rather see a positive side with the regulations, for example the increase of foreign issuers that entered the market the last couple of years and hence increasing the liquidity. A credit rating is sometimes beneficial but not always, it is not a necessity to enter the bond market.</p><p>As a matter of fact, it seems like volume is the most important reason to why medium-sized companies have limited access to the market. Since the minimum recommended volume to issue is 50 million SEK, many companies are excluded due to lack of financing need. Another important factor concerning medium-sized companies is that they do not have sufficient experience, knowledge or interest in the bond market. There are probably companies that would like to enter the bond market, who do not have the opportunity to do so, but this do not have anything to do with the lack of credit rating, rather the high cost associated with it.</p><p>The conclusion drawn is that it is hard to compare small and medium-sized companies with large already established actors. This is due to different need of capital and overall knowledge about the debt market.</p>

We examine recovery rates of defaulted bonds in the US corporate bond market, based on a complete set of traded prices and volumes. A study of the trading microstructure around various types of default events is provided. We document temporary price pressure with high trading volumes on the default day and the following 30 days, and low trading activity thereafter. Based on this analysis, we determine market-based recovery rates and quantify various liquidity measures. We study the relation between the recovery rates and these measures, considering additionally a comprehensive set of bond characteristics, firm fundamentals, and macroeconomic variables. (authors' abstract)

In this paper, we model price dispersion effects in over-the-counter (OTC) markets to show that, in the presence of inventory risk for dealers and search costs for investors, traded prices may deviate from the expected market valuation of an asset. We interpret this devia- tion as a liquidity effect and develop a new liquidity measure quantifying the price dispersion in the context of the US corporate bond market. This market offers a unique opportunity tofstudy liquidity effects since, from October 2004 onwards, all OTC transactions in this marketfhave to be reported to a common database known as the Trade Reporting and CompliancefEngine (TRACE). Furthermore, market-wide average price quotes are available from MarkitGroup Limited, a financial information provider. Thus, it is possible, for the first time, to directly observe deviations between transaction prices and the expected market valuation of securities. We quantify and analyze our new liquidity measure for this market and find significant price dispersion effects that cannot be simply captured by bid-ask spreads. Wefshow that our new measure is indeed related to liquidity by regressing it on commonly-usedfliquidity proxies and find a strong relation between our proposed liquidity measure and bond characteristics, as well as trading activity variables. Furthermore, we evaluate the reliability of end-of-day marks that traders use to value their positions. Our evidence suggests that the price deviations from expected market valuations are significantly larger and more volatile than previously assumed. Overall, the results presented here improve our understanding of the drivers of liquidity and are important for many applications in OTC markets, in general. (authors' abstract)

Thesis advisor: Pierluigi Balduzzi / Thesis advisor: Jonathan Reuter / In the first essay of this dissertation, I study the impact of fund redemptions and resulting sell-offs on corporate bond yields. To control for unobserved changes in fundamentals, I study within-issuer variation of yield changes, resulting from differential exposure to redemptions and sell-offs. In contrast to previous findings for equity funds, I find no evidence indicating that bond funds destabilize the corporate bond market by moving prices beyond fundamental values. I attribute this finding to bond fund management. Although I find that investors demonstrate a bank-run like behavior, which is a potential source of destabilization, bond fund managers hold a significant level of liquid assets, allowing them to manage redemptions without excessively liquidating corporate bonds. Second essay of this dissertation looks at corporate bond Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) which are a new form of financial innovation. Since these investment vehicles are relatively new, little is known about their risks. In this paper, we study an event in the summer 2013, knows as the Taper Tantrum, when bond ETFs and mutual funds experienced massive unexpected outflows due to speculations about interest rate hikes. We find that ETF outflows during the Taper Tantrum lead to a significant increase in exposed corporate bond yields. The increase in yields lasts for seven months, which indicates a temporary fire sale effect. In contrast, we find no fire sale effect resulting from mutual fund outflows. We attribute this contrasting finding between the two vehicles to differences in portfolio construction and investor sensitivities. Finally, we study arbitrage opportunities, created by ETF shares mispricing, and their impact on bond yields. Third essay of this dissertation is about liquidity in the corporate bond market. In market distress, corporate bond investors tend to sell liquid assets and hold onto illiquid ones, a phenomenon which we call flight to illiquidity. We study the impact of flight to illiquidity on corporate bond prices/yields in cross-section as well as corporate bond returns in time-series. First, we show that liquidity price premium disappears in market distress, meaning that liquid bonds are not more expensive than illiquid bonds in distress times. Second, we show that illiquiduity return premium which exists during normal times, not only does not change sign or disappears, but also widens in market distress. In other words, liquid bonds deliver a lower return both on average and during market distress. This pattern is limited to investment grade corporate bonds. Our findings suggest that keeping the credit risk fixed, liquid bonds do not provide safety during the time it is needed the most. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Finance.