Breadcrumb
Extended Viewer

Gergely Szalka
Executive Director, MSCI Research
About the Contributor
Gergely Szalka is an Executive Director and Senior Researcher covering hybrid fixed-income securities. Previously, he worked at UBS refining its counterparty credit methodology and at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development to developing its counterparty exposure capabilities. Gergely has an MSc in Physics from Eotvos University, Budapest.
HTML Displayer Portlet
Blog posts by Gergely Szalka
Extended-lister
-
BLOG
Surging Corporate-Bond Supply: Reason to Worry?
Jul 1, 2020 Andy Sparks , Gergely SzalkaIn the months since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies issued a large amount of corporate bonds. As a result of this surge, corporate debt has grown substantially — a burden that institutional credit investors may wish to monitor closely.
-
Chinese corporate bonds that convert to A shares display equity-like characteristics. But investors who view these securities as equities in disguise are overlooking the complexities of the asset class.
-
BLOG
Santander’s Coco extension: The New Market Norm?
Mar 18, 2019 Imre Vörös , Gergely SzalkaBanco Santander announced it would extend — i.e., not call — its additional-tier-one contingent-convertible (coco) bond. Was the market caught off guard?
-
Is my convertible bond more like a stock or a bond? How can I identify convertible bonds offering protection from rising rates?
-
The recent surge in volatility took some investors by surprise: The level of the VIX doubled in a day, and put an end to some strategies that involved short selling of the VIX. But larger exposures to rising volatility may be hiding elsewhere, including in volatility targeting and risk-parity strategies designed to better balance risk across asset classes. We stress tested potential scenarios to explore the vulnerabilities.
-
Convertible contingent securities — known as “CoCo bonds”-- are a popular form of hybrid debt, but they can be hard to value when issuers head into troubled waters. These securities are a form of risky debt (typically issued by European financial institutions) that convert to equity when a predetermined trigger is met, such as when the issuer’s capital or balance sheet plunges in value.