The aim of the paper is to assess the efficiency of public aid in form of a guarantee, given the EC State aid law. A State aid element valuation method for guarantee schemes, which highlights the effect of State aid on credit risk mitigation and takes into account the criteria for EC...

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)...

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...