Pricing of Off-Balance Sheet Debt: How Do Bond Market Participants Use the Footnote Disclosures on Operating Leases and Postretirement Benefit Plans?*

2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Partha Sengupta ◽  
Zheng Wang
2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 969-996 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Gyung H. Paik ◽  
Joyce A. van der Laan Smith ◽  
Brandon Byunghwan Lee ◽  
Sung Wook Yoon

SYNOPSIS Proposed changes by the FASB and the IASB to lease accounting standards will substantially change the accounting for operating leases by requiring the capitalization of future lease payments. We consider the impact of these changes on firms' debt covenants by examining the frequency of income-statement- versus balance-sheet-based accounting ratios in debt covenants of firms in high and low Off Balance Sheet (OBS) lease industries. Based on debt contracts from the 1996–2009 period, our results provide evidence that lenders focus on balance sheet (income statement) ratios in designing debt covenants for borrowers in low (high) OBS lease industries. Further, the use of balance-sheet- (income-statement-) based covenants falls (rises) faster in high OBS lease industries than in low OBS lease industries as the use of OBS leasing increases. This evidence indicates that OBS operating leases influence lenders' use of accounting information in covenants, suggesting that creditors consider the impact of OBS leases when structuring debt agreements. These results also suggest that the proposed capitalization of OBS leases may not result in firms violating loan covenants but will make the balance sheet a more complete source of information for debt contracting by removing the need for constructive capitalization of OBS leases.


2013 ◽  
Vol 88 (4) ◽  
pp. 1179-1210 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian Bratten ◽  
Preeti Choudhary ◽  
Katherine Schipper

ABSTRACT We provide evidence that disclosed items are not processed differently from recognized items when the disclosures are salient, not based on management estimates, and amenable to simple techniques for imputing as-if recognized amounts. For a sample of firms with both capital and operating leases, we find that as-if recognized amounts for leases are generally reliable and that both recognized lease obligations and disclosed lease obligations are associated with proxies for costs of debt and equity. The magnitudes of these associations are not statistically different across accounting treatments, suggesting that market participants impound as-if recognized operating lease obligations and recognized capital lease obligations similarly into costs of capital. Conditioning on the reliability of as-if recognized operating lease obligations, we find a difference in the association between recognized versus as-if recognized lease obligations and proxies for the costs of debt and equity when the operating lease disclosures are less reliable. Data Availability: Data used are available from public sources identified in the study.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Jun Hu ◽  
Wenbin Long ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
Linzi Zhou

PurposeUsing a sample of listed Chinese companies that issued bonds from 2010 to 2019, the authors empirically test the link between CSR and corporate bond pricing, and the mechanism and channels behind this link.Design/methodology/approachThis study systematically examines whether and how corporate social responsibility (CSR) affects the corporate bond market in China.FindingsFirms with better CSR have higher corporate bond credit ratings and lower corporate bond yield spreads. These associations remain stable in robustness checks, including checks that use regional typhoon disaster as an instrumental variable. The effects of CSR are more significant for firms with a worse information environment and for those operating in high-risk environments. Better CSR is associated with less earnings management, fewer financial restatements and less analyst forecast divergence. In addition, the effects of CSR are more pronounced after the 2013 market-oriented reform and when issuers are non-state-owned enterprises.Practical implicationsBecause market participants can incorporate firms' CSR into their decision-making, establishing an effective channel for communicating CSR between issuers and market participants will enhance the effects of CSR.Social implicationsResearchers need to attend to the mechanisms behind the link between CSR and corporate bond pricing, and to the characteristics of strong environmental contingency in emerging markets, specifically the periods and scenarios in which the effects of CSR change.Originality/valueThis study provides systemic evidence that CSR benefits corporate bond pricing through both informational and reputational channels and that the effects of CSR vary by time and firm. These findings enrich the literatures on both the economic consequences of CSR and the determinants of corporate bond pricing, and provide a plausible explanation for mixed findings on the effects of CSR in previous studies.


Author(s):  
Benjamin Y. Tai

The current study is undertaken to investigate the potential problems resulting from the proposed adoption of a new accounting standard concerning mandatory capitalization of all lease contracts.  In 2010, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) issued a joint exposure draft (ED2010/9) on accounting for leases.  Under the new standard, lessees are required to capitalize all lease contracts as assets and liabilities.  The distinction between operating leases and capital (finance) leases will no longer exist.  The long-standing off-balance sheet treatment of operating leases will be prohibited.  After the adoption of the proposed standard, companies with significant operating leases are likely to experience an increase in assets, increase in liabilities, and decrease in equity, resulting in the deterioration of their return-on- assets and debt-to-equity ratios.  This research examines two large fast-food restaurant chains based in Hong Kong; and through constructive capitalization, demonstrates how the companies’ key financial ratios are negatively impacted if the new standard is implemented.  The results indicate that both the return-on-assets and debt-to-equity ratios of the two companies, under various discount rates assumptions, suffer serious deterioration when their operating leases are capitalized.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pauline Deschryver ◽  
Frederic de Mariz

The green bond market is attracting new issuers and a more diversified base of investors. However, the size of the green bond market remains small compared to the challenges it is meant to address and to the overall traditional bond market. This paper is based on a unique methodology combining an extensive literature review, market data analysis, and interviews with a large spectrum of green bond market participants. We identify the current barriers explaining the lack of scalability of the green bond market: a deficit of harmonized global standards; risks of greenwashing; the perception of higher costs for issuers; the lack of supply of green bonds for investors; and the overall infancy of the market. This paper makes several recommendations to overcome these obstacles and unlock the full potential of green bonds to finance sustainability goals.


2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 372-392 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhamed Zulkhibri ◽  
Mohamed Shukri Abdul Rani

Purpose This paper aims to examine the role of term spreads to predict domestic output and inflation in Malaysia, a country with a relatively less-developed bond market. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses regression time-series regressions and probit models that control for past values of the dependent variable to determine the forecast performance of term spread on inflation and output in Malaysia. Findings The paper finds that term spread contains little information about future output and inflation at short horizons. Moreover, the usefulness of term spread to play a greater role in monetary analysis beyond conventional indicators in the case of Malaysia is limited. The degree of usefulness of term spread impediment could be attributed to the relatively fragmented, illiquid and captive bond market characteristics as compared to what is available in more matured and developed markets. Practical implications It is useful to incorporate technical and model-based approaches using yield curves beyond the usual indicator analysis from the policy point of view. Models could be used in tandem with other monetary and financial indicators to support discussions on the direction of monetary policy. Originality/value An efficient bond market could also play an important role in propagating monetary impulses via the relevant monetary transmission channels. Based on the findings, the paper suggests that there is a strong case to deepen domestic bond market. This would greatly enhance price discovery among market participants, improve risk management away from the traditional source for funds (i.e. banking system) and address supply-related issues.


2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 861-871 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuri Biondi ◽  
Robert J. Bloomfield ◽  
Jonathan C. Glover ◽  
Karim Jamal ◽  
James A. Ohlson ◽  
...  

SYNOPSIS The International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) recently issued a joint exposure draft on accounting for leases. This exposure draft seeks to shift lease accounting from an “ownership” model to a “right-of-use” model. Under the current ownership model, leases can be reported on balance sheet (finance leases) if certain tests are met, or off balance sheet (operating leases) if those tests are not met. The new model seeks to report all leases on the balance sheet based on the present value of lease obligations without any bright line tests, and no sharp on or off the balance sheet classifications. We are sympathetic to the standard setters' concern that the current lease standard is being manipulated improperly by managers, resulting in large amounts of debt being reported off balance sheet. We provide a discussion of current lease accounting and the proposed exposure draft. We also comment on five key issues covered by the exposure draft: the definition of a lease, the initial measurement and eventual reassessment at fair values, the accounting for lessors, the impact of lease accounting on recognition and income measurement, and classification of lease accounting elements and their impact on accounting ratios. JEL Classifications: M40.


Economica ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 61-66
Author(s):  
Veronika Fenyves ◽  
Dóra Kerezsi ◽  
Éva Bácsné Bába ◽  
Krisztina Dajnoki ◽  
Zoltán Bács ◽  
...  

In the globalized and accelerated world of our time, it is essential that enterprises have up-to-date information. Only a company that is in possession of the necessary information is able to meet the challenges of business life. One source of public information might be the annual statement prepared and published in accordance with the stipulations of Act C of 2000. The annual statement consists of three parts: the balance sheet, the profit and loss account and the notes to the financial statement. The text-based information of the notes to the financial statement are for the more accurate interpretation of numerical data. The notes to the financial statement of certain market participants (consumers, suppliers, competitors, etc.) might support efficient operation of companies, their proper decision-making and risk assessment. In present study, the notes to the financial statement of companies identifying sports activities (Hungarian NACE 931) as their primary activity were utilized. By means of text mining, it was examined what information these notes to the financial statement include from amongst the mandatory information required by the Accounting Act.


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