La performance des émetteurs d'obligations convertibles:Une étude sur les marchés français et canadiens (1990-2002)

Our thesis examines the stock price and operating performance of French and Canadian convertible bond (CB hereafter) issuers. It is situated in the framework of studies aimed at analyzing the impact of CB issuance on firm value. The preliminary chapter is devoted to the presentation of the French and Canadian CB markets, the grounds on which we built our study. The first part of our thesis focuses on the theoretical and methodological framework of the study. The second part describes our data sets and presents the empirical results of issuers' performance assessment and its determinants.Our sample consists of 97 and 95 CB offerings, made by 92 French and 95 Canadian firms respectively during the period of 1990-2002. For each of these two sub-samples, we first measure the short-run performance around CB issuance, using various event study methods and taking into account some methodological concerns raised by previous studies. We were interested next in investigating the issuers' long-run stock price performance. In order to achieve this objective, we followed Ritter [1991], Loughran and Ritter [1995] and others to compute long-term abnormal returns. In an effort to control potential bias, we demonstrate the robustness of our results using several alternative improved methods documented in the recent literature. Having established that firms in the two sub-samples significantly underperform their benchmark following CB financing decision, both in the short and the long-run, we attempt to give an explanation to this performance downturn through under and overreaction models proposed by the behavioral finance paradigm. We find that the long-run performance exhibit a pattern that is most consistent with a momentum behavior driven by investor's underreaction to the information conveyed by the event (CB issuance). This finding casts doubt on the market efficiency hypothesis.In the continuation of our study, we examined, using accounting-based measures, the long-run operating performance of issuing firms. Relative to matched non issuing firms, CB issuers experience a substantial decline in their operating performance from pre- to post-issue. Nevertheless, the study of operating performance determinants using PLS regression shows that this underperformance must be put into perspective by some issuer and issue features. Finally, coming back to the question of the stock price performance, we do not find any evidence of a post issue change in equity systematic risk. However, we provide evidence that issuers stock's idiosyncratic risk and liquidity increase following a convertible debt offer