Company warrants and structural warrants
Company warrants and structure warrants are two different types of options traded in Bursa.
An option provides the holder/buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a certain quantity of the underlying instrument at a stipulated price within a specific time period by paying a premium.
Company or stock call warrants are issued by the company to raise money. It gives the holders the right, but not an obligation, to subscribe for new ordinary shares at a specified price during a specified period of time. Warrants have a maturity date (up to 10 years) after which they expire are worthless unless the holder had exercised to subscribe for the new shares before the maturity date.
Structured warrants are proprietary instruments issued by financial institutions that give holders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the underlying instrument in the future for a fixed price.
For structure warrants, there is no conversion to the underlying share. All settlements only at expiry date and done with cash.
Basic Pricing of Options
The price, or cost, of an option is an amount of money known as the premium. For example, at the price of the SKP Resources and its warrants (exercise price=45 sen) at 35.5 sen and 7 sen respectively at the close of 17 September, 2013, the premium of buying this company warrant is 46% [(0.07+0.45)/0.355-1]. The buyer pays this premium in exchange for the right granted, or the “option” to exercise the right or allow the option to expire worthless. If before the expiry date the price of the SKP Resources rises above 45 sen, the exercise price, the holder of the warrant can exercise his right to convert to the underlying share. He then can sell the converted share to the market. If the price of the underlying share does not rise above 45 sen before expiry, the holder will just let the option expire without doing anything as he will lose more money doing so.
The two components of an option premium are the intrinsic value and the time value. The intrinsic value is the difference between the underlying's price and the exercise price. Specifically, the intrinsic value for a call option is equal to the underlying price minus the strike price. Any premium that is in excess of the option's intrinsic value is referred to as time value.
In general, the more time to expiration, the greater the time value of the option. In general, investors are willing to pay a higher premium for more time, since time increases the likelihood that the position can become profitable. Time value decreases over time and decays to zero at expiration.
Factors influencing and the pricing of options
The six major factors influencing the price of options are underlying share price, the exercise price, the expected volatility, time to expiry, interest rate and dividends. The higher the underlying share price, lower the exercise price, higher expected volatility, higher the interest rate and lower dividend will yield higher option prices and vice versa. For more information about options and their pricing, please refer to the appended link.
http://www.investopedia.com/university/options-pricing/
From this site, we will explore the investment opportunities for options; both company warrants and structured warrants.
Please feel free to contribute.
It is not how good you are in calculating the premium or discount. Like it or not, a warrant which is trading at a discount means not many people are interested to buy this warrant. For practical reason, I prefer to buy the warrant with a bit premium but not discount. I am interested to see the price moves up after I bought. It is no point to buy a warrant which is trading at a big discount, but the price cannot move up. It is a "supply and demand" in stock market. I do not care it is white cat or black cat, I want the cat able to catch the rat. Thank you.
Both Gamuda and IJM are good companies (No?), I agree that they may have limited upside compare with other small cap counters (in near term), hence, warrant is traded at a discount.
I saw these two warrants as I thought there are cheaper alternatives than buying the mother share, when the timing is right (say a market correction). So, I noted down for reference.
Everyone in stock market has a view, that's why there is buy and sell, which made the market interesting. I appreciate KCChong's contribution a lot (that's why I try to contribute a bit), and of course, Mr. OTB offers valuable inputs too, thanks very much.
Avocado, my opinion is it is not a bad idea investing in Gamuda or IJM's company warrants when they are selling at a discount, especially if you are upbeat about the company's business. Why?
1) When you buy the warrant at a discount, your risk of losing is low while still maintaining the opportunity to make good money before the expiry date of the warrant whenever there is a spike of the volatility of the underlying share. 2) Within this couple of years whenever the underlying share goes up above the present price, the warrant will generally goes up in tandem. The return of warrant will generally be higher because of the gearing. 3) Even if the warrant price doesn't go up in tandem because of the supply and demand thing, you can convert to the underlying share and sell for a good profit. 4) One should look at the value of the warrant in relation to the underlying share, rather than speculate if there is demand for the warrant or not, because the speculation, well, is speculation. 5) If you buy the warrant at high premium and hope that the demand and supply thingy will raise up the price further, well you are speculating. Speculating and gambling with insiders and institutional investors who have all the resources to beat you, a small time retail speculator. Are you sure you can beat them in the game?
kc, do you agree if I say that WCT-WC may be a good buy as it's premium is only minimal. Having said that WCT, together with Mudajya are tow of the worst performing construction stocks post GE13.
inwest88, I would agree with you. It has a good gearing too at 5.3 times. Within this two and a half years before the expiry of Wc, is WCT share price spikes up, the reward will be great. That is because you buy it at low premium.
Again it depends on whether WCT will do well in the next two and a half years.
Thanks kc, I reckon that WCT is quite a solid compnay, making profits every year and plenty of cash and reserves. Somehow it's not moving in tandem with the other big construction companies like Gamuda and IJM etc
Just read this article from Mark Sellers, a very successful US fund manager. This is a good guide to use for investing in warrants, in fact for any investment too.
Posted by xyzsim > Oct 2, 2013 02:10 PM | Report Abuse hi i'm new in warrant ..I had bought JCY-Co? May I know how am i convert to mother share ? Is this worth to convert?
Buying a company warrant at discount is a losing game? No demand hence price won't move up? Better buy at premium price?
I bought a no-demand company warrant of a non-demand stock Freight at 28 sen less than 5 months ago. There are people queuing up to buy at 54 sen, 53 sen 52 sen etc now.
What happen at this price? Freight Wa even with buyer at 54 sen is still trading at a big discount of 7.4% when the underlying share is at 1.63 now. Some more it comes with a good gearing of 3 times.
Posted by kcchongnz > May 15, 2013 04:37 AM | Report Abuse X
Yeah lah 1.09 boh liao, gone with the wind.
After somebody "um, um, um", I went in again three weeks again, but not in the mother share, but the warrant, Wa, at 28 sen just to shut his big mouth. Now let me evaluate my gain or loss.
I sold 20,000 shares at 1.09 on 8 March 2013 at 1.09, proceeds was RM21700. I bought 77800 shares of Wa at 28 sen with all the proceeds for sale of the mother shares. Now the mother share is 1.34 and Wa at 37 sen. My gain in Wa is RM7000 now, or 32%. My "loss" for not holding the mother share till now is RM5000, or 23%.
So which is a better position, hold mother share or Wa? Shit, should have straightaway bought Wa the day I sold the mother share when Wa was about 20 sen!
At today's prices, Wa is trading at no premium at all despite that it has more than 3 and a half years more to go before it expires. It has a nice gearing of 3.6 times some more. This is what we call "having the cake and eat it".
my personal view on Freight-WA....there is demand for underlying, that is why underlying moves. Underlying moves, WA will follow, hence why not ? important thing still goes back to the underlying. When we say supply & demand, then make sure it is supply & demand for underlying, not on WA.
On those WA where the cost per unit price > than RM 1, they are suffering from a kind of perception from the punters. When the cost per unit price of WA went above penny category ( > RM 1.0 ) ~ it is always perceive as too expensive to leverage regardless the ratios. Ratios not important to punters, coz they don't know about them. Hence they don't give a damn about ratios.
Yes! Look for demand for a share of the company's great business, demand because of its business profitability and growth; not the liquidity or non-liquidity of its stock. The price of the underlying and hence the warrant, will follow.
Hard to find similar wavelength like that of sesisir pisang.
Are you bullish on L&G? Why not take a look at its loan stock?
L&G and its loan stock is traded at 37.0 sen and 22.0 sen respectively. Here is an arbitrage opportunity:
Sell 100000 shares of L&G at 37.0 sen, receive RM37000 Buy 100000 shares of L&G-LA simultaneously at 22.0 sen and pay RM22000 Pay 100000*0.13 or RM13000 to convert to 100000 shares of L&G, and return the shares to lender. Total cost = 22000+13000= RM35000 Profit = 37000-35000 or RM2000
However, short sell is not allowed in Bursa. You have to buy the 1000000 shares of L&G-LA with your own money, and then send for conversion with RM13,000. Hopefully by the time you get back the converted shares, L&G is traded the same at 37.0 sen a piece or higher. Hence this is not a risk-free arbitrage opportunity, but good punt nevertheless.
But who would want to convert if there is still 5 more years to expiry? Moreover there is a 1% interest payment for the LA.
I started this thread about a month ago. Let us review what is the return of those company warrants shared. Most warrants recommended as good value are generally selling at discounts when they were written. Table 1 below shows the return of the underlying shares and their warrants.
The KLSE index has not moved at all since a month ago, It is still at about 1802. All the 8 warrants and their underlying shares (except for L&G Loan stock) recommended return with positive numbers, the highest being HapSeng with its underlying share and warrant increased by 15.5% and 51.4% respectively. This indicates the gearing and closing of discount effect of the warrant with respect to its underlying share.
The average return of the warrants recommended 16.0%, more than three times the average return of the underlying shares of 5.1%, also indicating the same things; the closing of the discounts and the gearing effect of derivatives. The closing of discount is also apparent for the L&G loan stock of which the underlying share dropped by 1.4% but LA increased by 2.3%.
Punchak Wb which was not recommended as buy because of its premium and low gearing is the only one gone into the negative territory. It lost 2.1% though the underlying share gone up by 3.5%. the other warrant, Redtone, which was not recommended moved a little.
So my conclusion is as expected. Buying company warrants at a discount and good gearing is a better strategy than buying warrants at premiums and low gearing and with active trading.
Table 1: Company Warrants Then Now Gain/loss Recom? Hapseng 2.19 2.53 15.5% Wa 0.555 0.840 51.4% Yes
I only agree 50% of your conclusion , especially on the gearing part. Traders who go into WA want to leverage, hence the higher gearing , the better leverage exposure
On discount & premium part, of course it will be safer to initiate WA in discount as the downside is limited, the capital is more secure but most of the time, WA in discount do not offer a good gearing level compare to WA in premium .
If the traders are so bullish on underlying that there might be a great movement soon, most often the sequence of priority will be gearing first, discount / premium second .
Focus Malaysia published a good article on FRB - WA & WB last weekend. I"m in my opinion the reasons given to speculate the underlying are valid. This is one example when WA with higher gearing & premium are favorable compare to lower gearing lower premium conditions.
[WA in discount do not offer a good gearing level compare to WA in premium.]
Your statement above is generally true. However, those warrants I have written and recommended have good gearing averaging about 3 times. Besides they are also mostly selling at discounts too.
Whereas those two warrants which are not recommended are selling at premiums and also low gearing of about 1.5.
Is it just a coincidence?
Think about it. If a warrant is selling at a high premium of say 50%, the underlying share has to move 50% before you get an intrinsic value equals to the price you pay. Unless the warrant has a long time to expiry, it is not easy for the underlying share to go up by 50% in a short time say one or two years.
And in an efficient market, the price of the underlying is generally is what the market thinks it is worth, unless you have some insider information about the company that nobody knows. If a magazine like Focus already know about this information and publishes it, how many other insiders and other people have already known about it?
coincidence ? you cannot totally eliminate this possibility away without any doubt, hence nightshade say yes, there are chances for coincidence , lol
On your next statement -
Think about it. If a warrant is selling at a high premium of say 50%, the underlying share has to move 50% before you get an intrinsic value equals to the price you pay. Unless the warrant has a long time to expiry, it is not easy for the underlying share to go up by 50% in a short time say one or two years.
nightshade view -
i)you holds your WA to expiry most of time? i guess most of us don't. if you need more than 1 year & 2 years for underlying to move, then we should not be on this leverage instrument in the first place :)
ii) most of the time, the time value(premium level)do not depreciates rapidly over time ( 50% to 0 ), it will be more gradual in process....hence when the premium level were there to stay and the WA will move accordingly when underlying moves
Your following statement -
And in an efficient market, the price of the underlying is generally is what the market thinks it is worth, unless you have some insider information about the company that nobody knows. If a magazine like Focus already know about this information and publishes it, how many other insiders and other people have already known about it?
nightshade view - the magazine only highlighted the information which are available to public...from the information, they are making a deduction on the underlying.....any problem if everyone getting the same piece of information ? :)
though underlying is not a investment grade at the time being but the reasons highlighted may grant a valid "speculation" to the underlying
- Ho Hup Bhd stake - insiders accumulation on FRB-WA itself
nightshade, thanks for your valuable feed back. No issues with your comments. I respect your difference in opinion. After all that is how the capital market works, a place where there are opposite opinions resulting in buy sell activities.
None of us know the future. In a way, any predictions are blind. Warrent, Str. Warrent, covered warrent, options etc. are just attempts to squeze out as much as possible from a single entity. When the entity died, all the superstructures will just collapsed and disappeared.
There are two outstanding company warrants issued by WCT. The exercise price, expiry date and the current price of each warrant is listed in Table 1 below, along with their intrinsic value and the respective premium, implied volatility and gearing to the warrants:
Table 1 Warrant Price Ex-Price Exp date Intrinsic value Premium Imvol Gearing Wc 0.470 2.04 10/03/2016 0.380 3.7% 18% 5.1 Wd 0.420 2.25 11/12/2017 0.170 10.3% 19% 5.8 WCT at RM2.42 on 23rd October 2013 Imvol is implied volatility
If one is bullish about the company WCT in particular and the market in general, warrants may offer a better alternative way of investing/trading than the underlying share. But just which warrant should one choose as a better play? It actually depends on individuals.
The best warrant to choose from is one with the lowest premium, the longest expiry date and the highest leverage. However all these favourable criteria don’t come together as you can see from Table 1 above. Both warrants above are in-the-money with positive intrinsic values. Wc is of better value trading at a lower premium of 3.7% and with a good gearing 5.1. Wd has a longer expiry date of more than 4 years and higher gearing of 5.8. However the premium is higher at 10.3%. So just which warrant is the best to buy?
For me I feel there is not much difference which to choose as both have approximately the same implied volatility. Most people may choose the longer expiry date and higher gearing Wd, especially if they are bullish about WCT. It is just individual choice.
I like this warrant.In and out a many times.Did u tikam YTLP WB?
faberlicious, with a low premium of 4.84%, and about 4 more years to expire, MBMR Wa appears to be a good value warrant. However, the problem is MBMR pays out a lot of dividends, something like 41.35 sen last year. So the dividend yield for MBMR is very high at 11%. A I right?
Warrant holders do not enjoy the dividends. High dividend diminishes the value of the underlying share and hence the value for the warrant holders. Using a dividend yield of 11% and an assumed historical volatility of MBMR, the warrant at 71 sen can be twice overpriced.
If you are bullish about MBMR, I think it is better to buy the underlying share rather than the warrant.
This is just my personal opinion and you don't have to follow.
KC,thanks for your comments. I think u got it wrong on last year's dividends. They pay only 9 sen dividend( 1st and 2nd interim 3 sen plus 3 sen special dividend). Where got pay 41.35 sen so much.No lah. How did get that figure?
faberlicious, yeah you are right. The 41.35 sen is the EPS, not dividend. Saw wrongly. Die lah, sure kena hantam by somebody already. How?
Yeah with dividend of just 9 sen, or a dividend yield of just 2.4%, it is not that damaging to the warrant holders. At the closing price of the underlying share at 3.72 today, using option pricing, the implied volatility is less than 15%. Meaning the warrant price of 71.5 sen today is reasonably low. Besides the gearing 5.2 is great.
See the difference in dividend yield on the warrant price? Next time, let me know the dividend per share of any warrant you intend to ask.
*Sigh* I just wanted to rant ... I missed out on my own warrant selection - SPRITZER-WA. Today fly to 70cents, I didn't monitor price movement lately because busy at work :-(
Mahsing Warrant B is trading at 55 sen while the underlying share is at RM2.20 now on 6th November 2013. It has an exercise price of RM 1.98 and the expiry date is on 18th March 2018, or in about 4.5 years time. The warrant is hence in-the-money with an intrinsic value of 22cents (2.20-1.98). However if you buy Wb at the price now of 55 sen now, you pay a premium of 33.0 sen, or a premium of 15%. This premium appears to be a little high but there is a gearing of 4 times for Wb. Moreover, the expiry date is quite a long time to come. Hence if you are bullish about Mahsing, Wb may offer a good alternative with a lower cost.
The theoretical value of warrant depends on the price of the underlying share, the exercise price, time to expiry, its volatility, the risk-free rate; in that order of importance. The Black-Scholes option pricing model, using a historical volatility of 31.5%, risk free rate of 3.5%, dividend yield of 2.3% and Mahsing’s price now at 2.20 shows that the warrant has a theoretical value of 64 sen, or 15% above its present price of 55 sen.
My personal opinion is Wb offers a better investing opportunity because of its reasonable premium with a good gearing . It also has quite a long time before expiry. Furthermore there is good upside potential for the underlying share as Mahsing has been aggressive in its development projects.
I'm feeling comfortable with the accumulation activities by major shareholders like Johor Corp, EPF & KWP. Normally when the big guys like them around accumulating the underlying, the chances to make money in the warrant also increases
Yeah, if one is bullish about Kulim, the company as well as the call warrants offer good punt. I said "punt" because fundamentally, I don't think Kulim is a good company. The return of the warrants has to depend on on the insiders to fry up the share price.
I prefer CN with a reasonable premium of just 5.2%, but a good gearing of 24 times, and expiring in more than 4 months time.
A high gearing is very good when the underlying share moves up high, but the reverse is also true if the share price goes the other way round.
So how sure are you about the movement of the underlying share price?
Sime Call Warrant CW is trading at 10.5 sen while the underlying share is at RM9.80 now at the morning close on 19 November 2013. It has an exercise price of RM 9.40 and the expiry date is on 30 May 2014, or more than 6 months time. The conversion ratio is 4:1.
The call warrant is hence in-the-money with an intrinsic value of 10cents. If you buy CW at the price now of 10.5 sen now, you pay a small premium of half a sen, or 0.2%.
It is indeed a surprise that with a such a high gearing of 23 times of CW, or an effective leverage of 15 times, the premium asked is so small. Moreover, the expiry date is still a long way to go. Hence if you are bullish about Sime, CW offers an extremely good and exciting punt.
The table below shows the percentage gain/loss of CW with the settlement price of the underlying share at the expiry date.
Although many people like to use leverage to amplify return from the stock market, there are equal or may be even more of them scorn it. Yes, investing with leverage cuts both ends. So as a self proclaimed prudent investor, why do I advocate the use of leverage in investing in warrants?
The theoretical value of warrant depends on the price of the underlying share, the exercise price, time to expiry, its volatility, dividend payment of the underlying and the risk-free rate. Let us take a warrant PJ Development Warrant C (WC) as an example how a leveraged instrument can be used as a financial risk management in investing rather than punting.
Wc has an exercise price of 1.00 and expire in 7 years time on 4th December 2020. At the latest closing price of PJD and Wc at 1.28 and 35.5 sen respectively, the leverage or gearing is 3.6 times. Wc is in-the-money now but it is trading at a premium of 6%. This means that if you buy Wc at 35.5 sen and pay RM1.00 to send it to convert to PJD share, you are overpaying to own PJD shares by 6%. But who would be so stupid to do that ? There is precious time value in Wc which you won’t want to lose it by converting Wc to PJD share now.
Let say I am bullish about PJD that the company will do well in the next 7 years and I believe that its share price will go up to RM2.00 within this 7 years before the expiry of Wc. Let say I first intend to invest in 10,000 shares of PJD for RM12800. If PJD share price goes up to RM2, I will sell it for a profit of RM7200, or 56%. Now instead of placing RM12800 at risk, what if I spend just RM4000 to purchase 11200 shares of Wc, or just a third of capital layout?
I would achieve my goals if PJD really goes up to RM 2.00 within this 7 years as I would convert Wc and then sell in the market of the converted share of PJD for RM2.00. I would make the same amount of money, i.e. RM7200, with much lower capital layout and my return is now 182%.
Of course the reverse is also true. If PJD share price goes down by 6% to RM1.20 and as the warrant is still in-the-money, I have to convert Wc as it is expiring, I would lose 44%. What if there is a major economic disaster and PJD goes bankrupt? One will lose all his money whether you are in PJD or Wc. But PJD shareholders lose RM12800, whereas Wc investors lose only RM4000.
Yes, the beauty about warrant investors is warrant holders has the right but not the obligation to convert to the underlying share when it is out-of-the-money, i.e. when PJD share price is below RM1.00, the conversion price. Hence the downside risk of warrant is lower and limited to the lower cost of you investment in warrants.
The table below shows the payoff of Wc with various prices of the underlying share price.
This morning, Hibiscus share price closed 2 sen up to RM2.13 with a volume of 2.9m while its warrant diverged and closed down 6 sen to RM1.55 with a volume of 11m shares. Why?
Hibiscus Wa has 8 months to expire. It has an exercise price of 50 sen. At the prices stated above, the intrinsic value of Wa is RM1.63. That is right. At RM1.55, Wa is trading at a discount of 4%, plus 8 months of free time value. Can't you see the big fat frog jumping all around?
But wait! Before you jump in and buy loads of Wa, think about these:
1)Who are those selling the warrants? Who got the most number of these free warrants in the first place? 2) Why did they sell the warrant with such a discount? 3) Why didn't they convert to Hibiscus share and then sell at a higher price? 4) Are they stupid? I don't think so. 5) Why the buy volume of the underlying share (which went up)is so much lower than the sell volume of warrant (which went down)?
There are simply too many whys. Don't you think so?
Let's have a cup of black Cappuccino or flat white to get a clear mind.
This is painting the tape. In the old days, punters looked at the tape for the price movement. So insiders traded and manipulated the stock prices as shown by the tape. Small retail punters simply have no chance, absolutely no chance to gamble with them.
Hibiscus share price dropped in such a fury by 32% from RM2.70 to the close of RM1.84 from just three days ago. Its warrant fell by 36% from RM2.08 to RM1.32 for the same period. Very seldom see such fast and fury action.
Hibiscus is no exception. Three months ago Sersol warrant dropped from 91 sen 35 sen, exactly the same way as Hibiscus.It is trading at 31 sen now.
Other similar cases are TMS, Ingens and Asupreme warrants etc. For punters who wish to make money gambling with insiders and manipulators, it is a jungle out there.
This book is the result of the author's many years of experience and observation throughout his 26 years in the stockbroking industry. It was written for general public to learn to invest based on facts and not on fantasies or hearsay....
Posted by kcchongnz > 2013-09-17 20:38 | Report Abuse
Company warrants and structural warrants Company warrants and structure warrants are two different types of options traded in Bursa. An option provides the holder/buyer the right, but not the obligation, to purchase or sell a certain quantity of the underlying instrument at a stipulated price within a specific time period by paying a premium. Company or stock call warrants are issued by the company to raise money. It gives the holders the right, but not an obligation, to subscribe for new ordinary shares at a specified price during a specified period of time. Warrants have a maturity date (up to 10 years) after which they expire are worthless unless the holder had exercised to subscribe for the new shares before the maturity date. Structured warrants are proprietary instruments issued by financial institutions that give holders the right, but not the obligation, to buy or sell the underlying instrument in the future for a fixed price. For structure warrants, there is no conversion to the underlying share. All settlements only at expiry date and done with cash. Basic Pricing of Options The price, or cost, of an option is an amount of money known as the premium. For example, at the price of the SKP Resources and its warrants (exercise price=45 sen) at 35.5 sen and 7 sen respectively at the close of 17 September, 2013, the premium of buying this company warrant is 46% [(0.07+0.45)/0.355-1]. The buyer pays this premium in exchange for the right granted, or the “option” to exercise the right or allow the option to expire worthless. If before the expiry date the price of the SKP Resources rises above 45 sen, the exercise price, the holder of the warrant can exercise his right to convert to the underlying share. He then can sell the converted share to the market. If the price of the underlying share does not rise above 45 sen before expiry, the holder will just let the option expire without doing anything as he will lose more money doing so. The two components of an option premium are the intrinsic value and the time value. The intrinsic value is the difference between the underlying's price and the exercise price. Specifically, the intrinsic value for a call option is equal to the underlying price minus the strike price. Any premium that is in excess of the option's intrinsic value is referred to as time value. In general, the more time to expiration, the greater the time value of the option. In general, investors are willing to pay a higher premium for more time, since time increases the likelihood that the position can become profitable. Time value decreases over time and decays to zero at expiration. Factors influencing and the pricing of options The six major factors influencing the price of options are underlying share price, the exercise price, the expected volatility, time to expiry, interest rate and dividends. The higher the underlying share price, lower the exercise price, higher expected volatility, higher the interest rate and lower dividend will yield higher option prices and vice versa. For more information about options and their pricing, please refer to the appended link. http://www.investopedia.com/university/options-pricing/ From this site, we will explore the investment opportunities for options; both company warrants and structured warrants. Please feel free to contribute.