Revisiting the Voting Prohibition in Bond Workouts
by | posted in: Workouts and Pre-Packs | 0

Author: Carlos Berdejó, Loyola Law School, Los Angeles

Economic theory suggests that corporate law should enable parties to contract freely in order to promote their best interests, leading to socially optimal arrangements.  This is particularly true for corporate bonds, which are governed by detailed indentures and held by large, sophisticated investors.  However, the Trust Indenture Act, which for 75 years has regulated the terms of U.S. public corporate debt, contains numerous mandatory rules, including a prohibition on collective action clauses (CACs).  A CAC allows a qualifying majority of bondholders to modify the interest rate, maturity and principal of an outstanding bond issue in a manner that binds all bondholders, including those who may prefer to hold-out to extract a larger payment.  This longstanding prohibition limits the ability of firms to restructure their debt via private workouts and can exacerbate the costs of financial distress by unnecessarily forcing issuers into bankruptcy.  Most countries other than the U.S. do not prohibit CACs and afford parties flexibility in choosing the qualifying majority that may amend the core terms of a bond issue.

My article, Revisiting the Voting Prohibition in Bond Workouts, examines contracting choices in Brazil, Chile and Germany, countries that have recently enacted reforms affecting their bond markets, including changes in restrictions on CACs.  I find that not only do market participants embrace increased flexibility with respect to CACs, but that interest rates decrease as a result, lowering the cost of capital for issuers.

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[Related Work Note: The work in Revisiting the Voting Prohibition in Bond Workouts provides evidence relating to the argument made in Mark Roe, The Voting Prohibition in Bond Workouts, 97 Yale L.J. 232 (1987), that the prohibition unwisely impeded out-of-bankruptcy recapitalizations and channeled some parties’ incentives towards coercive restructurings that would not have been needed if straight-forward votes were allowed.  That article can be found here.  More generally, academic bankruptcy theory has focused on the extent to which contract terms should be respected by law, inside and outside of bankruptcy.  See Alan Schwartz, Bankruptcy Workouts and Debt Contracts, 36 J. of L. & Econ. 595 (1993), available here.  –Stephen Adams, Editor]

“Trade Away!”—Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York Decides That Original Issue Discount From Fair Value Exchanges Is Allowable in Bankruptcy
by | posted in: Claims Trading | 0

Authors: Richard L. Wynne and Lance Miller, Jones Day

Debt exchanges have long been utilized by distressed companies to address liquidity concerns and to take advantage of beneficial market conditions.  A company with burdensome debt obligations might seek to exchange existing notes for new notes with the same outstanding principal but with borrower-favorable terms (a “Face Value Exchange”).   Alternatively, the company could attempt to exchange existing notes for new notes with a lower face amount (a “Fair Value Exchange”).  Under either scenario, a debt exchange will create “original issue discount” (“OID”) equal to the difference between the face amount of the new notes and the value generated by the exchange for the company (i.e., the fair market value of the old notes).  For tax and accounting purposes, OID is treated as interest that is amortized over the life of the note, with the face amount scheduled to be paid on maturity.

When a company files for bankruptcy, however, unaccrued OID should arguably be disallowed under section 502(b)(2) of the Bankruptcy Code as “unmatured interest.”  However, to encourage out-of-court restructurings, both the Second and Fifth Circuit Courts of Appeal have ruled that unaccrued OID from Face Value Exchanges should not be disallowed.  In In re Residential Capital , LLC, 501 B.R. 549 (Bankr. S.D.N.Y. 2013), the court expanded that rationale to apply to Fair Value Exchanges.  If interpreted broadly and adopted by other courts, the decision will bring certainty to the markets that OID resulting from a debt-for-debt exchange will be allowed in bankruptcy, regardless of how the exchange is structured.

A more detailed discussion of the ruling is available here.

 

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