Coupon payment history

[Mast1996]

I’m new to fixed income investing.
I wonder if anyone could tell me how I can confirm that a corporate bond has been paying its coupon?
I have been dealing equities on Hargreaves Lansdown for some years and always check the dividend history before buying a share. Sadly that information is not available on HL for bonds.
I have searched the internet for the data but have drawn a blank.

[Alaric]

I wonder if anyone could tell me how I can confirm that a corporate bond has been paying its coupon?
.

It's in the nature of Corporate Bonds that the coupon is a first or near first charge on Company assets, rather than a last one like dividends. If the yield is "normal" then the coupon has and is expected to continue to be paid. Like equities the really high yielding ones are the ones to beware of. That's where the market has doubts about the ability of the Company to pay the coupon and repay or refinance the debt at maturity.

Google for the name of the Company and perhaps "Corporate Bond" to see if there's adverse publicity.

"wasps bonds price" comes up with reports about a recent failure to repay.

[Mast1996]

Thanks Alaric,
That’s good advice and very clear.
I was looking at International Personal Finance (IPF2) - as its YTM looked suspiciously high.
There is a massive dip in the bond price in the bonds price in April 2020. Looking at the ordinary share (IPF), it missed it’s dividend payments in 2020. I guess the bond coupon was also missed and the market is pricing this in.
I have a lot to learn but this website is full of excellent information.
Thanks again for you time.

[Gan020]

Thanks Alaric,
That’s good advice and very clear.
I was looking at International Personal Finance (IPF2) - as its YTM looked suspiciously high.
There is a massive dip in the bond price in the bonds price in April 2020. Looking at the ordinary share (IPF), it missed it’s dividend payments in 2020. I guess the bond coupon was also missed and the market is pricing this in.
I have a lot to learn but this website is full of excellent information.
Thanks again for you time.

Welcome to the world of bonds.

The dividend payment on the bonds has never been missed for IPF2.

The bond fell to 60p in 2020 when it looked like the financial world was going to fall apart from Covid.

The yield is high because the "market" perceives IPF is not well capitalised, perceives it has excessive debt and lends to a high risk sector and the sector is increasing subject to government interference. There are probably other reasons.

My view is that IPF2 is significantly overpriced and the YTM should be much higher (i.e. the YTM is suspicously low, possibly as a result of PI's buying chasing yield without having fully researched). Having said that I own it. The spread and the lack of something that I have a huge burning desire to replace it with keeps me in.

[Mast1996]

Thanks Gan020
That's really interesting. It leads me back to the original question of how to I check a coupon history.
I can be sure it has paid the coupon if the ordinary dividend has been paid but missed dividend does not necessarily mean the coupon was missed.
I am guessing that you know because you owned it at the time.

[mc2fool]

A thought, DAK do corporate bond events (like coupon payments) appear in the RNS for a company?

There's nothing obvious just eyeballing the recent list for IPF, but I haven't looked into any of them....

https://www.investegate.co.uk/Index.aspx?searchtype=3&words=IPF

[hiriskpaul]

A thought, DAK do corporate bond events (like coupon payments) appear in the RNS for a company?

There's nothing obvious just eyeballing the recent list for IPF, but I haven't looked into any of them....

https://www.investegate.co.uk/Index.aspx?searchtype=3&words=IPF

Not often, but a default would almost certainly require an RNS!