Spill Bonds

It seems the whole planet has been watching the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. The world cup may provide a much-needed distraction from that unfolding disaster but in any event, analysts and traders are fast at work trying to find ways to make money in the oily turmoil, without appearing to be too oblivious to the plight of shrimp fishermen and seabirds.

Most of the work has centered on stocks, but like always, there is a bond angle to this also. Let’s “explore” and “drill down” to details.

First: the good guys, those trying to clean up this mess. Clean Harbors (CLH) is a name that comes to mind. Its stock is up over 20% since the spill. Its 2016 bonds, on the other hand, have traded flat. If you’re happy with a 7% yield on a BB- rated bond of a company whose prospects were fine and just got a lot better, there’s an idea for you. Clean and simple. The issue is a bit small ($300 mm), but it does trade (Reg S 144A only for now).

Now. the evil enviro-killers. BP jumps out first, of course, While much has been make of BPs stock slide, its bonds have sold off also. Here’s graph of the yield on BP’s 5.25% , 2013s as an example.

BP is still rated AA- by S&P, although we’d expect a downgrade at some point. In any case, the possibility that this spill will send BP into bankruptcy has to be extremely remote. The highest clean up cost estimate out there is $15 billion, which is huge amount of money. But BP can afford that, the company made $20 billion in profits last year.

At the bottom of this post there’s a list of oil spill bonds including some BP USD issues. BP also has issued bonds in Euros, Yens and Sterling, so the whole world can get clean up on what appears to be a temporary bargain.

BP may be the main target of the “spilling fields” disaster, but not the only one. Transocean (RIG) owns the Deepwater Horizon rig, which is leased to BP. Transocean will probably have a bill to pay in this fiasco too, but they too can afford it.

RIG bonds have been submerging also. Here is the yield on the 5.25%% 2013s. Quite a spike.

And there has been substantial “collateral damage also”. A company like Hornbeck Offshore (HOS), which doesn’t drill itself but operates supply vessels to the rigs has seen its stock and bonds hit. Several clients are reneging on their contracts alleging “force majeure” in the offshore drilling moratorium, but HOS isn’t buying that and is countersuing. The bonds have sold off and there is a nice buying opportunity, since the company’s balance sheet is still quite acceptable.

Then there are cases like McMoran Exploration (MMR) and Energy XXI (EXXI). These companies have operations on and offshore in the Gulf area, but the offshore ops are “shallow water”. Shallow water is a whole different animal when it comes to oil spill risk and the ban has been lifted for shallow water already.

Yet Another Update on My Wife's Junk

Last year I blogged about the junk bond portfolio that my wife put together all by herself (mostly). LINK. I also ran an update on it later in the year. LINK.

This is what that portfolio looked like last time I updated: (click to enlarge)



A few things have happened since. First and foremost, everything went up. A lot. The portfolio gained 45% in 2009 and is up around 5% so far this year. Not that my wife was keeping count. She’s content to just clip coupons. I’m the one doing the counting.

Second there were corporate actions. Starwood Hotels (Sheraton) made a tender offer (accepted) and Jo-Ann Stores called its bonds.

In addition, the Alcoa and Seagate Bonds rose enough in price to trigger the “mortgage” sell signal. That signal basically states that if the bond pays less than our (tax-adjusted) mortgage rate, sell it and either buy something else or pay down the mortgage.

In any case, she decided not to pay down the mortgage, but rather to buy some more junk.
What to buy?

For starters, she selected SmithField Foods, a company I blogged about around Thanksgiving. That’s good because it means she actually reads my blog. When I mentioned that she already had two food companies in Dole and Chiquita, she said “What do Pineapples and Bananas have to do with Turkeys?” OK. Point Taken. Of course, coming from a vegetarian, who knows?

She did take my advice on her next purchase. I thought she could have an energy company in the portfolio, so I showed her several options. There are quite a few smaller oil and gas producers and refiners with bonds in the market at attractive yields. She chose Clayton Williams Energy, an oil and gas company with operations in New Mexico, Texas and Lousiana. Hopefully, for my sake, that well doesn’t come up dry.

Finally, she got motorized with her last two picks. First, Ford Motors, which has been doing much better lately and is benefiting from the troubles that Toyota is having. Ford bonds were huge winners last year, but still could have room to run.
Second, Avis-Budget Rent a Car, which is a highly leveraged situation, but my wife figures if they try harder they’ll pull through.

Here’s what the portfolio looks like now:
Click on the table to enlarge:




It’s a bit junkier, longer in duration and the overall yield is lower.

Only averaging about 7.56% now. But confronted with the alternatives: bank CDs at under 1% or taking her chances on the stock market, she says she’ll stick with her junk for now. She’s happy just to collect the interest. Market crashes? She's like "What me worry?"

That being the case, she should be able to sit tight and just clip coupons for another year and a half until her next bond matures. We’ll see what the world looks like then. Maybe it will be time to pay down the mortgage.

As for the photo. Yes, that is my wife. I married up, I know.