IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/nbr/nberwo/2558.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Costs Of Financial Distress, Delayed Calls Of Convertible Bonds, And The Role Of Investment Banks

Author

Listed:
  • Dwight Jaffee
  • Andrei Shleifer

Abstract

In a frictionless market with perfect information, a shareholder-wealth- maximizing firm should force conversion of its convertible bond issue into stock as soon as the bond comes in-the-money. Firms however appear to systematically delay forced conversion, sometimes for years, beyond this time. We show that the observed delays can be plausibly explained in terms of costs to shareholders of a failed conversion and the ensuing financial distress. Firms delay the forced conversion to avoid the self-fulfilling outcome that bondholders expect the conversion to fail, tender their bonds for cash, and the stock price falls to account for the costs of financial distress, in which case tendering for cash is in fact optimal. Unlike other explanations of delayed forced conversion, we can explain the common use of investment banks to underwrite these transactions, since the banks can eliminate the self-fulfilling bad outcome.

Suggested Citation

  • Dwight Jaffee & Andrei Shleifer, 1988. "Costs Of Financial Distress, Delayed Calls Of Convertible Bonds, And The Role Of Investment Banks," NBER Working Papers 2558, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    • Handle: RePEc:nbr:nberwo:2558
    Note: ME
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2558.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. David M. Cutler & Lawrence H. Summers, 1988. "The Costs of Conflict Resolution and Financial Distress: Evidence from the Texaco-Pennzoil Litigation," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 19(2), pages 157-172, Summer.
    2. Mikkelson, Wayne H., 1981. "Convertible calls and security returns," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(3), pages 237-264, September.
    3. Harris, Milton & Raviv, Artur, 1985. "A Sequential Signalling Model of Convertible Debt Call Policy," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 40(5), pages 1263-1281, December.
    4. Brennan, M J & Schwartz, Eduardo S, 1977. "Convertible Bonds: Valuation and Optimal Strategies for Call and Conversion," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(5), pages 1699-1715, December.
    5. Kyle, Albert S, 1985. "Continuous Auctions and Insider Trading," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 53(6), pages 1315-1335, November.
    6. Shleifer, Andrei, 1986. "Do Demand Curves for Stocks Slope Down?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 41(3), pages 579-590, July.
    7. Warner, Jerold B, 1977. "Bankruptcy Costs: Some Evidence," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 32(2), pages 337-347, May.
    8. Wayne H. Mikkelson, 1983. "Capital Structure Change and Decreases in Stockholders' Wealth: A Cross-Sectional Study of Convertible Security Calls," NBER Working Papers 1137, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Dann, Larry Y. & Mikkelson, Wayne H., 1984. "Convertible debt issuance, capital structure change and financing-related information : Some new evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(2), pages 157-186, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. King, Tao-Hsien Dolly & Mauer, David C., 2014. "Determinants of corporate call policy for convertible bonds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 112-134.
    2. Yue Kwok & Lixin Wu, 2000. "Effects of Callable Feature on Early Exercise Policy," Review of Derivatives Research, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 189-211, May.
    3. Adoukonou, Olivier & André, Florence & Viviani, Jean-Laurent, 2021. "The determinants of the convertible bonds call policy of Western European companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    4. Isagawa, Nobuyuki, 2000. "Convertible debt: an effective financial instrument to control managerial opportunism," Review of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 9(1), pages 15-26.
    5. Pagratis, Spyros, 2004. "Co-ordination failure and the role of banks in the resolution of financial distress," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 24939, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    6. Stein, Jeremy C., 1992. "Convertible bonds as backdoor equity financing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 3-21, August.
    7. Min Dai & Yue Kwok, 2005. "Optimal policies of call with notice period requirement," Asia-Pacific Financial Markets, Springer;Japanese Association of Financial Economics and Engineering, vol. 12(4), pages 353-373, December.
    8. Scruggs, John T., 2007. "Estimating the cross-sectional market response to an endogenous event: Naked vs. underwritten calls of convertible bonds," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 14(2), pages 220-247, March.
    9. Barclay E. James & Paul M. Vaaler, 2017. "Experience, Equity and Foreign Investment Risk: A PIC Perspective," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 57(2), pages 209-241, April.
    10. Asquith, Paul, 1948-, 1992. "Convertible debt--a dynamic test of call policy," Working papers 3413-92., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    11. Altintig, Z. Ayca & Butler, Alexander W., 2005. "Are they still called late? The effect of notice period on calls of convertible bonds," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 337-350, March.
    12. Nobuyuki Isagawa, 2000. "Convertible debt: an effective financial instrument to control managerial opportunism," Review of Financial Economics, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 9(1), pages 15-26, March.
    13. Koziol, Christian & Roßmann, Philipp, 2022. "Contingent convertible bonds: Optimal call strategy and the impact of refinancing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    14. Bruce D. Grundy & Patrick Verwijmeren, 2012. "Dividend-Protected Convertible Bonds and the Disappearance," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 12-060/2/DSF37, Tinbergen Institute.
    15. Katherine L. Phelps & William T. Moore & Rodney L. Roenfeldt, 1991. "Equity Valuation Effects Of Warrant-Debt Financing," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 14(2), pages 93-103, June.
    16. Kim, Yong O. & Kallberg, Jarl, 1998. "Convertible calls and corporate taxes under asymmetric information," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 19-40, January.
    17. Bajo, Emanuele & Barbi, Massimiliano, 2012. "The role of time value in convertible bond call policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 550-563.
    18. Sarkar, Sudipto, 2003. "Early and late calls of convertible bonds: Theory and evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1349-1374, July.

    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. Kim, Yong O. & Kallberg, Jarl, 1998. "Convertible calls and corporate taxes under asymmetric information," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 19-40, January.
    2. Asquith, Paul, 1948-, 1992. "Convertible debt--a dynamic test of call policy," Working papers 3413-92., Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Sloan School of Management.
    3. Tobias Nigbur, 2015. "Calls of convertible debt securities: no bad news at all," Financial Markets and Portfolio Management, Springer;Swiss Society for Financial Market Research, vol. 29(1), pages 61-79, February.
    4. Grundy, Bruce D. & Veld, Chris & Verwijmeren, Patrick & Zabolotnyuk, Yuriy, 2014. "Why are conversion-forcing call announcements associated with negative wealth effects?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 24(C), pages 149-157.
    5. Stein, Jeremy C., 1992. "Convertible bonds as backdoor equity financing," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 3-21, August.
    6. Fernando Díaz & Rodolfo Martell & Gabriel Ramírez, 2011. "Agency Effects in the Convertible Debt Puzzle: An Empirical Investigation," Working Papers 26, Facultad de Economía y Empresa, Universidad Diego Portales.
    7. Jalan, P. & Barone-Adesi, G., 1995. "Equity financing and corporate convertible bond policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 187-206, May.
    8. Adoukonou, Olivier & André, Florence & Viviani, Jean-Laurent, 2021. "The determinants of the convertible bonds call policy of Western European companies," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    9. Bruce D. Grundy & Patrick Verwijmeren, 2012. "Dividend-Protected Convertible Bonds and the Disappearance," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 12-060/2/DSF37, Tinbergen Institute.
    10. Isagawa, Nobuyuki, 2002. "Callable convertible debt under managerial entrenchment," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 255-270, July.
    11. Randall S. Billingsley & Robert E. Lamy & David M. Smith, 1990. "Units Of Debt With Warrants: Evidence Of The “Penalty-Free” Issuance Of An Equity-Like Security," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 13(3), pages 187-199, September.
    12. Sarkar, Sudipto, 2003. "Early and late calls of convertible bonds: Theory and evidence," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 1349-1374, July.
    13. Martin, Darius & Qiu, Junfeng & Zhang, Yongli, 2015. "Asymmetric information and conversion price reset policy: The case of Chinese convertible debt," The Journal of Economic Asymmetries, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 133-141.
    14. Mayers, David, 1998. "Why firms issue convertible bonds: the matching of financial and real investment options," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 47(1), pages 83-102, January.
    15. Bajo, Emanuele & Barbi, Massimiliano, 2012. "The role of time value in convertible bond call policy," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 36(2), pages 550-563.
    16. Magennis, Darren & Watts, Edward & Wright, Sue, 1998. "Convertible notes: the debt versus equity classification problem," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 8(2-3), pages 303-315, September.
    17. Fernandes, Marcelo & Mergulhão, João, 2016. "Anticipatory effects in the FTSE 100 index revisions," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 37(C), pages 79-90.
    18. Greenwood, Robin, 2005. "Short- and long-term demand curves for stocks: theory and evidence on the dynamics of arbitrage," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(3), pages 607-649, March.
    19. An Yan & Debarshi Nandy & Thomas Chemmanur, 2004. "Why Issue Mandatory Convertibles? Theory and Empirical Evidence," Econometric Society 2004 North American Winter Meetings 456, Econometric Society.
    20. Martin Evans and Richard K. Lyons, 2002. "Are Different-Currency Assets Imperfect Substitutes?," Working Papers gueconwpa~02-02-12, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.

    More about this item

    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:nbr:nberwo:2558. 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: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/nberrus.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.