Publications
Publications
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(41)
- Faculty Publications (19)
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- 2022
- Working Paper
High-Yield Debt Covenants and Their Real Effects
By: Falk Bräuning, Victoria Ivashina and Ali Ozdagli
High-yield debt including leveraged loans is characterized by incurrence financial covenants, or “cov-lite” provisions. A traditional loan agreement includes maintenance covenants, which require continuous compliance with the covenant threshold, and their violation... View Details
- 2024
- Working Paper
Transitory and Permanent Cash Flow Shocks in Debt Contract Design
By: Le Ma, Anywhere Sikochi and Yajun Xiao
We examine how lenders design contracts to account for transitory and permanent cash flow shocks facing borrowers. We find that volatile transitory cash flow shocks are associated with fewer liquidity covenants, indicating financial flexibility that enables firms to... View Details
- March 2021 (Revised April 2021)
- Case
Making Impact Investing Markets: IFC (A)
By: Shawn A. Cole, John Masko and T. Robert Zochowski
In 2017, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) faced the first big investment decision in its new Scaling Solar project. Founded in 1956, IFC was an international investment body with national governments as shareholders, whose mission was to promote economic... View Details
Keywords: Impact Investing; Development Economics; Developing Countries and Economies; Renewable Energy; Climate Change; Environmental Sustainability; Borrowing and Debt; Credit; Equity; Bonds; Financing and Loans; Growth and Development; Emerging Markets; Non-Governmental Organizations; Corporate Social Responsibility and Impact; Investment; Decision Making; Financial Services Industry; Energy Industry; Zambia
- Article
CDS Trading and Nonrelationship Lending Dynamics
By: Jung Koo Kang, Christopher Williams and Regina Wittenberg-Moerman
We investigate how credit default swaps (CDSs) affect lenders’ incentives to initiate new lending relationships. We predict that CDSs reduce adverse selection that nonrelationship lead arrangers face when competing for loans. Consistently, we find that a loan is... View Details
- January 2021
- Supplement
Aster DM Healthcare: Budget Exercise
By: V.G. Narayanan and Amy Klopfenstein
In April 2020, Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, a network of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies in the Middle East and India, must create her company’s budget for the 2021 fiscal year in light of the onset of Covid-19. The pandemic had... View Details
Keywords: Decision Making; Decisions; Forecasting and Prediction; Judgments; Decision Choices and Conditions; Cost vs Benefits; Finance; Borrowing and Debt; Financial Institutions; Banks and Banking; Financial Condition; Financial Liquidity; Accounting; Budgets and Budgeting; Management; Crisis Management; Health Pandemics; Health Industry; Asia; India; United Arab Emirates; Dubai
- January 2021
- Case
Aster DM Healthcare: Budgeting for a Crisis
By: V.G. Narayanan and Amy Klopfenstein
In April 2020, Alisha Moopen, Deputy Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare, a network of clinics, hospitals, and pharmacies in the Middle East and India, must create her company’s budget for the 2021 fiscal year in light of the onset of Covid-19. The pandemic had... View Details
- 2018
- Working Paper
Corporate Refinancing, Covenants, and the Agency Cost of Debt
By: Daniel Green
How valuable are restrictive debt covenants in reducing the agency costs of debt? I exploit the revealed preference decision to refinance fixed-coupon bonds, which weighs observable interest rate savings against the unobservable costs of a change in restrictive... View Details
Keywords: Covenants; Refinancing; Corporate Bonds; Agency Costs; Debt Policy; Borrowing and Debt; Bonds; Interest Rates
- September 2017 (Revised February 2019)
- Case
Blackstone's GSO Capital: Crosstex Investment
By: Victoria Ivashina, John D. Dionne and Jeffrey Boyar
This case focuses on the Blackstone credit arm, GSO Capital as it evaluated a proposal for an equity investment into the distressed company, Crosstex Energy L.P., an integrated midstream energy company, that was hit hard by declining natural gas prices during the 2008... View Details
- September 2016
- Article
Disproportional Control Rights and the Bonding Role of Debt
By: Aiyesha Dey, Valeri Nikolaev and Xue Wang
We examine the governance role of debt in the context of U.S.-based dual class ownership structures. We hypothesize that the use of debt alleviates the conflict between shareholder classes by balancing the power of controlling insiders. We document that dual class... View Details
- Working Paper
Covenant-Light Contracts and Creditor Coordination
By: Bo Becker and Victoria Ivashina
In 2015, 70% of newly issued leveraged loans had weaker enforcement features, called covenant-light or "cov-lite"; this is nearly a three-time increase in cov-lite issuance compared to a previous peak in 2007. We evaluate whether this development can be attributed to... View Details
- October 2012
- Case
Harrah's Entertainment
By: Paul A. Gompers, Kristin Mugford and J. Daniel Kim
This case examines the issues of establishing and managing a capital structure for the leveraged buyout of Harrah's Entertainment. View Details
- September 2011
- Case
AXA Private Equity: The Diana Investment
By: Michael J. Roberts and William A. Sahlman
The case focuses on an investment made by AXA Private Equity, a French manufacturer of food ingredients. The investment is made at the height of the financial markets, and financed with significant debt. Soon thereafter, the financial crisis impacted the company's... View Details
- September 2011 (Revised September 2011)
- Case
Penn Warranty Corporation
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Penn Warranty Corporation sold warranty contracts to the used car market. During the recession in 2008/2009 Penn's sales declined by 26% Instead of growing by 11% as forecasted. Also, disruptions in financial and insurance markets created a cash shortfall. In the... View Details
- August 2011 (Revised November 2018)
- Case
Lind Equipment
By: Richard S. Ruback and Royce Yudkoff
Lind Equipment failed to meet its loan covenants with its senior bank lender in the summer of 2008, just six months after it was acquired. While the senior bank debt comprised only 6% of the capital used in the acquisition and was fully secured, it exercised its right... View Details
- July 2011
- Article
The Private Equity Advantage: Leveraged Buyout Firms and Relationship Banking
By: Victoria Ivashina and Anna Kovner
This paper examines the impact of leveraged buyout firms' bank relationships on the terms of their syndicated loans. Using a sample of 1,590 loans financing private equity sponsored leveraged buyouts between 1993 and 2005, we find that bank relationships are an... View Details
- June 2010 (Revised November 2013)
- Case
Momentive Performance Materials, Inc.
By: Victoria Ivashina and David Scharfstein
After nearly violating its loan covenants in 2009, Momentive Performance Materials, backed by its financial sponsor Apollo Global Management, took a variety of actions to restructure its debt. The restructuring steps included an open market repurchase of publicly held... View Details
- March 2006 (Revised December 2013)
- Case
Hexcel Turnaround — 2001 (A)
By: Paul W. Marshall, James Quinn and Reed Martin
Hexcel's new CEO is faced with deciding how to "take out" $60 million in cash costs in fiscal 2002, as two of the company's end markets—electronics and commercial aerospace—are expected to decline precipitously. Options include closing plants, exiting a business, or... View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
Transitory and Permanent Cash Flow Shocks in Debt Contract Design
By: Le Ma, Anywhere Sikochi and Yajun Xiao
We examine how lenders design contracts to account for transitory and permanent cash flow shocks facing borrowers. We find that volatile transitory cash flow shocks are associated with fewer liquidity covenants, indicating financial flexibility that enables firms to... View Details
- Forthcoming
- Article
Weak Credit Covenants
By: Victoria Ivashina and Boris Vallée
Using novel data on 1,240 credit agreements, we investigate sources of contractual complexity in the leveraged loan market. While negative covenants are widespread, carve-out
and deductible clauses that qualify them are as frequent. We propose simple and comprehensive... View Details