A covenant is a special set of clauses in a firm's debt contract restricting business policy and allowing creditors to take specified action should the covenant terms be violated. Three main reasons for the inclusion of covenants in debt contracts are accounted for in the literature: they (1)...

Covenants are particular clauses in debt contracts of firms that restrict business policy, giving creditors the possibility of putting precise actions into force - normally early repayment - when the covenants are violated. We refer to the Agency Theory of Covenant (ATC), which assumes that as...

In Italy the adoption of convenants, and, more in detail, the use of bond covenants, is constrained by the predominance of SMEs, the significant role of relationship banking, the high costs related to public placements, the lack of investors‘ financial culture, the low amount of capital...

A freeze-out bond exchange offer occurs when a firm wants to replace an existing bond, issued with a covenant, with a new bond that does not have this kind of restriction. If the bondholders are not fully coordinated, the shareholders can make an unfair exchange offer to capture wealth from the...