Extraordinary Event - Equity Derivatives Provision
Content and comparisons
Section 12.1. General Provisions Relating to Extraordinary Events
- 12.1(a). “Extraordinary Event”
- 12.1(b). “Merger Event”
- 12.1(c). “Merger Date”
- 12.1(d). “Tender Offer”
- 12.1(e). “Tender Offer Date”
- 12.1(f). “Share-for-Share”
- 12.1(g). “Share-for-Other”
- 12.1(h). “Share-for-Combined”
- 12.1(i). “New Shares”
- 12.1(j). “Other Consideration”
- 12.1(k). “Combined Consideration”
- 12.1(l). “Announcement Date”
- 12.1(m). “Implied Volatility”
- 12.1(n). “Affected Shares”
Summary
Break these “Extraordinary Events” into four categories:
Corporate events on Issuers: Corporate Events are generally benign[1] but not always expected or even wanted adjustments to the corporate structure and management of specific underlying Shares — Tender Offers, Mergers, management buyouts and events that change the economic proposition represented by those Shares, and not the equity derivative contract. So: Merger Events and Tender Offers;
Index adjustments: For Index trades, unexpected adjustments and changes to methodologies and publishing strategies of underlying Index (as opposed to changes in the composition of the Index according to its pre-existing rules) — collectively call these “Index Adjustment Events”. So:
- Index Modification: Changes in the calculation methodology for the Index
- Index Cancellation: Where Indexes are discontinued with replacement;
- Index Disruption: disruption in the calculation and publication of Index values;
Negative events affecting Issuers: Nationalizations, Insolvency, Delisting of underlying Issuers;
Additional Disruption Events: Events which directly impair performance and risk management of the Transaction itself. These often cross over with market- and Issuer-dependent events above, but the emphasis here is their direct impact on the parties’ abilities to perform and hedge the derivative Transaction itself. So:
- The Triple Cocktail: The Triple Cocktail of Change in Law, Hedging Disruption and Increased Cost of Hedging;
- Stock borrow events: Specific issues relating to short-selling (Loss of Stock Borrow and Increased Cost of Stock Borrow); and
- Random ones that aren’t needed or used: Two random ones that don’t brilliantly fit with this theory, and which people tend to disapply — possibly for that exact reason, but they are fairly well covered by the Triple Cocktail anyway — Failure to Deliver under the Transaction on account of illiquidity and, even more randomly, Insolvency Filing[2].
See also
References
- ↑ “Benign” from the point of view of the target company’s solvency and market prospects; not quite so benign from its management team’s prospects of ongoing employment.
- ↑ especially since there is already an “Insolvency” event covering most of this).