The Bond Market Rejects Coeur d'Alene

Last week Coeur d’Alene (CDE) announced plans to issue debt, even though they have no obvious need of any extra cash. It looked very much as if the company was planning to make an acquisition rather than focus on returning value to shareholders, and we commented as such on this blog. It seems the bond market reached a similar conclusion since today CDE announced that unfavorable market conditions had prompted them to withdraw the bond offering.

Of course it’s not hard for any creditworthy borrower to raise funds at today’s rock-bottom interest rates, but evidently the long history of value destruction by prior management combined with CEO Mitch Krebs’ very small personal investment in CDE equity persuaded bond buyers that CDE debt was not an investment the market needed. The irony is that pulling the issue has boosted their stock price by 5% today. What a pity CEO Krebs doesn’t believe more fervently in his company’s ability to create shareholder value, otherwise he’d have a bigger stake and would be benefitting from the bond market’s rejection of their acquisition plans.