0.,t,r 32: Structured Products 619 
t'Ussed in the remainder of this chapter, resembles the covered write of a call 
option. These often have names involving the term preferreds. Some are called 
Trust Preferreds; another popular term for them is Preferred Equity Redemption 
Cumulative Stock (PERCS). We will use the term PERCS in the following exam­
ples, but the reader should understand that it is being used in a generic sense - that 
any of the similar types of products could be substituted wherever the term PERCS 
is used. 
A PERCS is a structured product, issued with a maturity date and tied to an 
individual stock. At the time of issuance, the PERCS and the common stock are usu­
ally about the same price. The PERCS pays a higher dividend than the common 
stock, which may pay no dividend at all. If the underlying common should decline in 
price, the PERCS should decline by a lesser amount because the higher dividend 
payout will provide a yield floor, as any preferred stock does. 
There is a limited life span with PERCS that is spelled out in the prospectus at 
the time it is issued. Typically, that life span is about three years. At the end of that 
time, the PERCS becomes ordinary common stock. 
A PERC S may be called at any time by the issuing corporation if the company's 
common stock exceeds a predetermined call price. In other words, this PERCS stock 
is callable. The call price is normally higher than the price at which the common is 
trading when the PERCS is issued. 
What one has then, if he owns a PERCS, is a position that will eventually 
become common stock unless it is called away. In order to compensate him for the 
fact that it might he called away, the owner receives a higher dividend. What if one 
substitutes the word "premium" for "higher dividend"? Then the last statement 
reads: In order to compensate him for the fact that it might be called away, the owner 
receives a premium. This is exactly the definition of a covered call option write. 
Moreover, it is an out-of-the-money covered write of a long-term call option, since 
the call price of the PERCS is akin to a striking price and is higher than the initial 
stock price. 
Example: XYZ is selling at $35 per share. XYZ common stock pays $1 a year in div­
idends. The company decides to issue a PERCS. 
The PERCS will have a three~ life and will be callable at $39. Moreover, the 
PERCS will pay an annual dividend of $2.50. 
The PERCS annual dividend rate is 7% as compared to 2.8% for the common 
stock. 
If XYZ were to rise to 39 in exactly three years, the PERCS would be called. 
The total return that the PERCS holder would have made over that time would be: