关于受偿等级不同的债券下列说法错误的是「债券信用评级」

原标题：The growing worry for bondholders: Getting 'primed'

报道：Kate Duguid

编辑：Megan Davies和Daniel Wallis

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bondholders in particularly hard-hit sectors like energy, travel and leisure have another issue to watch for as companies struggle to survive the economic shutdown - getting demoted by new debt issues.

纽约（路透社）- 能源、旅游和娱乐休闲业等受到特别严重打击的行业的债券持有人有了另一个需要关注的问题：在经济停摆中挣扎的公司新发的债券将会影响其受偿权。

This phenomenon is known in the market as getting “primed” or “layered,” where a company in need of cash offers a bond backed by collateral, called secured debt, which has seniority over any previously issued unsecured debt. Being at the top of the capital structure means that in a bankruptcy those investors get paid back first.

这种现象在市场上称为被“降级”或“降层”，在这种情况下，需要现金的公司发行的抵押担保债券被称为有担保债务，该类债券的受偿优先级高于任何先前发行的无担保债务。处于公司股本结构的顶端意味着破产时这些投资者享有优先受偿权。

Since the start of the coronavirus epidemic, this has happened to investors in the debt of movie theater chain AMC Entertainment (AMC.N), theme parks Six Flags Entertainment (SIX.N) and Cedar Fair (FUN.N), propane supplier Ferrellgas Partners FGPR.PK and cruise line Carnival Corp (CCL.N), according to a Reuters analysis. Of the new issues currently trading, all are priced far higher than where the remainder of the company’s debt is trading.

据路透社分析，自新冠疫情开始以来，影院连锁公司AMC娱乐，主题公园公司Six Flags娱乐和Cedar Fair，丙烷供应商Ferrellgas合伙公司以及邮轮企业Carnival的债权投资人已受到了该类影响。在目前正在交易的新债券中，所有债券的定价都远远高于公司其余债务的交易价格。

“Many companies, especially in high yield, are going to look for ways... to come up with a debt offering that is sellable, period,” said Tom Graff, head of fixed income at Brown Advisory. “The most obvious way to do that is to secure the new bonds, but that ‘primes’ old bondholders, effectively reducing the security for the old holders in favor of the new buyers.”

“许多公司，尤其是高收益公司，都将寻找并提出……可行的发行债务的方法。” 布朗咨询公司固定收益负责人汤姆·格拉夫（Tom Graff）说，“而最简单的方法是为新债券担保，但这是在'降低'旧债券持有人的受偿优先级，从而通过有效降低旧持有人债权的安全性，从而有利于新买家。”

Graff said that lately companies had been forced to give bond buyers more security in these deals, but said if they need to come back to market because the public health crisis drags on, “that’s going to get tough.”

格拉夫表示，最近公司被迫在这些交易中为债券购买者提供更高的安全性，但他也表示，如果这些公司由于公共健康危机的持续而需要再次面对市场时，“事情将变得更加棘手。”

AMC Entertainment, which had faced industry-wide headwinds prior to the pandemic, approached the debt market with generous terms on a $500 million bond: secured debt and a hefty coupon of 10.5%, about twice the cost of its previous issues.

疫情前，因行业不景气，AMC娱乐以慷慨的条款向债务市场发行了5亿美元债券，该批债券不仅有担保，且利息高达10.5％，约为其前期发行债券成本的两倍。

One of the largest holders of AMC’s unsecured debt, a portfolio manager who requested anonymity for compliance reasons, said that could make existing bondholders worse off and that higher leverage would make it more difficult to turn around the business.

AMC无担保债务的最大持有人之一，一位因合规原因而要求匿名的投资组合经理说，这可能会使现有债券持有人的境况恶化，而如此高的杠杆率也将使其更加难以扭转业务局面。

AMC, Ferrellgas, Six Flags and Carnival did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesperson from Cedar Fair declined to comment.

AMC，Ferrellgas，Six Flags和Carnival公司均未回复置评请求。Cedar Fair的发言人拒绝置评。

The past decade of cheap borrowing and low yields has allowed issuers to chip away at traditional investor protections.

过去十年的低成本借贷和低收益率使得债券发行人得以削弱传统的投资者保障。

About 80% of high-yield North American debt issued since 2011 is unsecured. Priming investors is allowable under the terms of most unsecured debt.

自2011年以来，约80%的高收益北美债务无抵押。降低投资者安全性的做法已在大多数无抵押债务的条款中被接受。

The majority of unsecured high-yield bonds issued since 2011 include terms which allow the company to issue new subordinating secured debt - without consulting bondholders - worth an average of 3.2 times earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to Evan Friedman, head of covenant research at Moody’s. That is up from an average 2.8 times EBITDA for high yield bonds issued in that period that are now inactive, indicating subordinating debt restrictions have loosened.

穆迪的违约研究负责人埃文·弗里德曼（Evan Friedman）表示，自2011年来，包含无需经过原债券持有人即允许公司发行新的从属担保债务条款的大多已发行的无担保高收益债券的平均价值是税息折旧及摊销前利润的3.2倍，高于现已成为冷门债券但在当时发行的平均价值是税息折旧及摊销前利润2.8倍的高收益债券，这表明从属债务的限制已变得宽松。

The last sustained spate of priming happened during the energy crisis of 2014-2016 which saw companies like Energy XXI offer a $1.45 billion secured deal in March 2015, demoting its unsecured bondholders.

最近一次该类连续“降级”的情况发生在2014-2016年的能源危机期间。2015年3月，像Energy XXI这样的公司提供了14.5亿美元的担保交易，降低了其无担保债券持有人的安全性。

The chances of being primed are lower in less volatile markets as it is often a last resort for companies, who do not want to annoy potential bond buyers. Multiple investors and analysts say the expected wave of coronavirus-driven bankruptcies has significantly increased the rate of priming in the last month and will continue to do so. S&P Global predicts that the default rate will increase to 10% in the next year, from 3.1% at the end of 2019.

在波动性较小的市场中，债券持有者被降级的机会较低，因为对于那些不想惹恼潜在购买者的公司而言，这通常是最后的选择。众多投资者和分析师表示，预期因新冠疫情而发生的破产潮已显著提高了上个月的降级率并将持续。标普全球预测，明年的违约率将从2019年底的3.1％增加到10％。

Not all secured debt jumps to the front of the line, given that bank loans typically have seniority in the capital structure, but “being primed is relative to other bondholders,” said Brian Kloss, global credit portfolio manager at Brandywine Global.

布兰迪万环球（Brandywine Global）全球信贷投资组合经理布莱恩•克洛斯（Brian Kloss）表示，鉴于银行贷款通常在股本结构方面占有优势，并非所有有担保债务都能享有优先级，但“相对于其他债券持有人而言则是被降级了”。

“Due the extreme impact (of the coronavirus epidemic) on business models, being primed has become an issue that may not have been an issue under more normal circumstances,” said Kloss.

Kloss还表示：“由于（新冠疫情）对商业模式的巨大影响，降级已成为一个问题，而在原先正常的情况下，这本可能不是个问题。”