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Top management incentives and financial flexibility: The case of make‐whole call provisions
Author(s) -
Jameson Melvin,
King TaoHsien Dolly,
Prevost Andrew
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of business finance and accounting
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.282
H-Index - 77
eISSN - 1468-5957
pISSN - 0306-686X
DOI - 10.1111/jbfa.12475
Subject(s) - callable bond , incentive , business , debt , equity (law) , issuer , flexibility (engineering) , monetary economics , call option , bond , finance , economics , microeconomics , management , political science , law
Consistent with the premise that make‐whole call provisions enhance value‐creating financial flexibility, we find that higher sensitivity of managerial wealth to stock price (delta) increases the likelihood that corporate bonds contain make‐whole provisions. Building on the results of related research, post‐issue financial performance of make‐whole callable bond issuers increases in delta. In line with prior findings that demonstrate financial flexibility can be costly to bondholders, we find that managerial equity incentives impact the incremental effect of make‐whole provisions on the pricing of corporate debt securities. Consistent with the flexibility explanation, we also find that the market response as measured by abnormal trading volume to the issuance of make‐whole callable debt varies in equity incentives. Overall, our results suggest that managerial incentives play a role in the choice, pricing, and market response to make‐whole options in corporate debt securities.