In our paper, Equity-Holding Institutional Lenders: Do They Receive Better Terms?, which was recently made publicly available on SSRN, we evaluate the way in which institutional equity holders are involved in the lending process. Participation by equity-holding institutions has become a major part of the syndicated loan market. In our sample of 11,137 institutional “leveraged” loan tranches between 1997 and 2007 from the DealScan database, 2,008 (18%) have participation by a “dual holder” institution that owns at least 0.1% of the borrowing firm’s equity. Lending to firms in which one has an equity position goes against the principle of diversification, since it exposes the investor to firm-specific shocks through both its equity and debt ownership. To justify dual holding, the investor must receive compensation of some sort, either through the improvements in the value of its equity holdings, or by above market rates of return on the loan.

We estimate the abnormal return a dual holder receives by comparing spreads on dual holder tranches to those on observationally equivalent tranches that do not have a dual holder. Our estimates indicate, holding all else equal, that loan tranches with dual holder participation receive a 13 basis-point higher spread than otherwise similar tranches without an equity holder’s participation in the lending syndicate. The positive spread is statistically and economically significant for revolvers as well as term loans and for loans to borrowers of different ratings and to unrated borrowers as well.

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In the paper, Bankruptcy and the Collateral Channel, which is forthcoming in the Journal of Finance, we investigate whether bankrupt firms affect their competitors in a causal manner or whether the observed adverse effects merely reflect changes in the economic environment faced by the industry at large. Using a novel dataset of secured debt tranches issued by U.S. airlines, we provide empirical support for the collateral channel.

Airlines in the U.S. issue tranches of secured debt known as Equipment Trust Certificates (ETCs), Enhanced Equipment Trust Securities (EETCs), and Pass Through Certificates (PTCs). We construct a sample of aircraft tranche issues and then obtain the serial number of all aircraft that were pledged as collateral. For each of the debt tranches in our sample we can identify precisely its underlying collateral. We then identify the ‘collateral channel’ off of both the time-series variation of bankruptcy filings by airlines, and the cross-sectional variation in the overlap between the aircraft types in the collateral of a specific debt tranche and the aircraft types operated by bankrupt airlines. The richness of our data – which includes detailed information on tranches’ underlying collateral and airlines’ fleets – combined with the fairly large number of airline bankruptcies in our sample period, allows us to identify strategic externalities that are likely driven by a collateral channel rather than by an industry shock to the economic environment.

…continue reading: Bankruptcy and the Collateral Channel