IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/119069.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Defeasance of control rights

Author

Listed:
  • Bienz, Carsten
  • Faure-Grimaud, Antoine
  • Fluck, Zsuzsanna

Abstract

We analyze one frequent clause in bonds, covenant defeasance. Covenant defeasance allows the issuer to remove the bond's covenants by placing the remaining payments with a trustee in escrow to be paid out on schedule. We provide theoretical justification for this option and show empirically that it allows inclusion of more covenants in bond issues. We highlight characteristics that make issuers likely to add a defeasance clause. In line with the model's prediction, the empirical analysis documents 13-24 basis points yield reduction for defeasible bonds - annual saving of about $1m, or $11m over the life of the average bond.

Suggested Citation

  • Bienz, Carsten & Faure-Grimaud, Antoine & Fluck, Zsuzsanna, 2011. "Defeasance of control rights," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 119069, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:119069
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/119069/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Antje Brunner & Jan Pieter Krahnen, 2008. "Multiple Lenders and Corporate Distress: Evidence on Debt Restructuring," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 75(2), pages 415-442.
    2. Hermalin, Benjamin E & Katz, Michael L, 1991. "Moral Hazard and Verifiability: The Effects of Renegotiation in Agency," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 59(6), pages 1735-1753, November.
    3. Aghion, Philippe & Tirole, Jean, 1997. "Formal and Real Authority in Organizations," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 105(1), pages 1-29, February.
    4. Bengt Holmstrom & Jean Tirole, 1997. "Financial Intermediation, Loanable Funds, and The Real Sector," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 112(3), pages 663-691.
    5. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    6. Roberts, Michael R. & Sufi, Amir, 2009. "Renegotiation of financial contracts: Evidence from private credit agreements," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(2), pages 159-184, August.
    7. Patrick Bolton & Olivier Jeanne, 2007. "Structuring and Restructuring Sovereign Debt: The Role of a Bankruptcy Regime," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 115(6), pages 901-924, December.
    8. repec:bla:jfinan:v:44:y:1989:i:4:p:1049-57 is not listed on IDEAS
    9. Gilles Chemla & Michel A. Habib & Alexander Ljungqvist, 2007. "An Analysis of Shareholder Agreements," Journal of the European Economic Association, MIT Press, vol. 5(1), pages 93-121, March.
    10. repec:ner:ucllon:http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/17678/ is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Nöldeke, Georg & Schmidt, Klaus M., 1995. "Option contracts and renegotiation," Munich Reprints in Economics 19329, University of Munich, Department of Economics.
    12. John Y. Campbell & Glen B. Taksler, 2003. "Equity Volatility and Corporate Bond Yields," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2321-2350, December.
    13. Nini, Greg & Smith, David C. & Sufi, Amir, 2009. "Creditor control rights and firm investment policy," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(3), pages 400-420, June.
    14. Jean Tirole, 2006. "The Theory of Corporate Finance," Post-Print hal-00173191, HAL.
    15. Georg Noldeke & Klaus M. Schmidt, 1995. "Option Contracts and Renegotiation: A Solution to the Hold-Up Problem," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 26(2), pages 163-179, Summer.
    16. Sudheer Chava & Michael R. Roberts, 2008. "How Does Financing Impact Investment? The Role of Debt Covenants," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 63(5), pages 2085-2121, October.
    17. Fudenberg, Drew & Tirole, Jean, 1990. "Moral Hazard and Renegotiation in Agency Contracts," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 58(6), pages 1279-1319, November.
    18. Mann, Steven V. & Powers, Eric A., 2003. "Indexing a bond's call price: an analysis of make-whole call provisions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(5), pages 535-554, November.
    19. Bodie, Zvi & Taggart, Robert A, Jr, 1978. "Future Investment Opportunities and the Value of the Call Provision on a Bond," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 33(4), pages 1187-1200, September.
    20. Myers, Stewart C., 1977. "Determinants of corporate borrowing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(2), pages 147-175, November.
    21. Barnea, Amir & Haugen, Robert A & Senbet, Lemma W, 1980. "A Rationale for Debt Maturity Structure and Call Provisions in the Agency Theoretic Framework," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 35(5), pages 1223-1234, December.
    22. Philippe Aghion & Patrick Bolton, 1992. "An Incomplete Contracts Approach to Financial Contracting," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 59(3), pages 473-494.
    23. Kraus, Alan, 1973. "The Bond Refunding Decision in an Efficient Market," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 8(5), pages 793-806, December.
    24. Hand, John R. M. & Hughes, Patricia J. & Sefcik, Stephan E., 1990. "Insubstance defeasances : Security Price Reactions and Motivations," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 47-89, May.
    25. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4112 is not listed on IDEAS
    26. Fluck, Zsuzsanna, 1998. "Optimal Financial Contracting: Debt versus Outside Equity," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 11(2), pages 383-418.
    27. Nash, Robert C. & Netter, Jeffry M. & Poulsen, Annette B., 2003. "Determinants of contractual relations between shareholders and bondholders: investment opportunities and restrictive covenants," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 9(2), pages 201-232, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nikolaev, Valeri V., 2018. "Scope for renegotiation in private debt contracts," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(2), pages 270-301.
    2. Reisel, Natalia, 2014. "On the value of restrictive covenants: Empirical investigation of public bond issues," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 251-268.
    3. Hans B. Christensen & Valeri V. Nikolaev, 2012. "Capital Versus Performance Covenants in Debt Contracts," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(1), pages 75-116, March.
    4. Wang, Jing, 2017. "Debt covenant design and creditor control rights: Evidence from the tightest covenant," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 331-352.
    5. Chy, Mahfuz & Kyung, Hoyoun, 2023. "The effect of bond market transparency on bank loan contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2).
    6. Zhang, Xinde & Zhou, Simiao, 2018. "Bond covenants and institutional blockholding," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 136-152.
    7. Daniel Cohen & Bin Li & Ningzhong Li & Yun Lou, 2022. "Major government customers and loan contract terms," Review of Accounting Studies, Springer, vol. 27(1), pages 275-312, March.
    8. Brian Akins & David De Angelis & Maclean Gaulin, 2020. "Debt Contracting on Management," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(4), pages 2095-2137, August.
    9. Erik P. Gilje & Elena Loutskina & Daniel Murphy, 2020. "Drilling and Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 75(3), pages 1287-1325, June.
    10. Michael R. Roberts, 2014. "The Role of Dynamic Renegotiation and Asymmetric Information in Financial Contracting," NBER Working Papers 20484, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Armstrong, Christopher S. & Guay, Wayne R. & Weber, Joseph P., 2010. "The role of information and financial reporting in corporate governance and debt contracting," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(2-3), pages 179-234, December.
    12. Christophe J. GODLEWSKI, 2017. "Initial conditions and the private debt renegotiation process," Working Papers of LaRGE Research Center 2017-03, Laboratoire de Recherche en Gestion et Economie (LaRGE), Université de Strasbourg.
    13. Korkeamaki, Timo P., 2005. "Effects of law on corporate financing practices--international evidence from convertible bond issues," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(5), pages 809-831, October.
    14. Carsten Bienz & Uwe Walz, 2010. "Venture Capital Exit Rights," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 1071-1116, December.
    15. Gregor Matvos, 2013. "Estimating the Benefits of Contractual Completeness," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(11), pages 2798-2844.
    16. Beatriz Mariano & Josep Tribó Giné, 2015. "Creditor Intervention, Investment, and Growth Opportunities," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 47(2), pages 203-228, April.
    17. Ambrocio, Gene & Colak, Gonul & Hasan, Iftekhar, 2022. "Commitment or constraint? The effect of loan covenants on merger and acquisition activity," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 47(PB).
    18. Efraim Benmelech & Nitish Kumar & Raghuram Rajan, 2024. "The Decline of Secured Debt," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 79(1), pages 35-93, February.
    19. Olivier Meier & Aurélie Sannajust, 0. "The smart contract revolution: a solution for the holdup problem?," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-16.
    20. Duran, Miguel A., 2022. "The risk–return relation in the corporate loan market," The North American Journal of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    corporate bonds; action-limiting covenants; defeasance option; control rights; bond yields;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G32 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Financing Policy; Financial Risk and Risk Management; Capital and Ownership Structure; Value of Firms; Goodwill
    • D86 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Economics of Contract Law
    • G12 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Asset Pricing; Trading Volume; Bond Interest Rates

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:119069. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.