Bond Debt Governance: A Comparative Analysis of Different Solutions to Financial Distress of Corporate Bond Debtors

Bond debt financing is a two-edged sword. Solvent debtors have the chance to attract numerous potential investors with an easily tradeable and flexible investment opportunity. In financial distress, information, coordination, and cooperation problems provide a hotbed for opportunistic strategies. This book explores the relation between debtors and bond creditors. Restructuring and insolvency procedures provided by the state are compared to private and contractual solutions functioning with institutions such as covenants, bond trustee, creditor committee, and collective action clauses. Restrictions on private contractual solutions - importantly, the voting prohibition in the US - as well as private circumvention strategies (i.e. exit consent and consent payments) are discussed critically. The author argues that private procedures before and outside of insolvency are best suited to achieve value-maximisation. The focus is on US and English law, complemented by a short analysis of German law.