Sunday 30 January 2011

Nortel Bonds

#alttext#It's not often that this blogger reads the Toronto Globe and Mail - despite that newspaper's reputation - but he was intrigued by the little story that appeared in one of his webzines last Friday which clearly emanated from that newspaper. It's a report about Nortel bonds. In March 2009 - just after Nortel filed for bankruptcy - these were fetching 10c on the dollar. In other words, investors were not expecting that Nortel's assets would actually cover much of the debt. Last week the bonds were up to 88c on the dollar - that's an 880% rise in just under two years. So - how did that come about?

#alttext#Well, the Globe and Mail adds, it's at least partly due to the potential from the still unsold patent portfolio, which we've already reported on here. It's fascinating to see how sophisticated investors are now pricing in potential returns on IP sales into the valuation of bonds.

No comments: