Troubled Debt Restructurings
Journal of Financial Economics 27 (1990) 315-353. North-Holland Troubled debt restructurings An empirical study of private reorganization of firms in default* Stuart C. Gilson The Unicersity of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA Kose John and Larry H.P. Lang New York University, New York, NY 10003, USA Received November 1989, final version received May 1990 This study investigates the incentives of financially distressed firms to restructure their debt privately rather than through formal bankruptcy. In a sample of 169 financially distressed companies, about half successfully restructure their debt outside of Chapter 11. Firms more likely fo restructure their debt privately have more intangible assets, owe more of their debt to banks, and owe fewer lenders. Analysis of stock returns suggests that the market is also able to discriminate er ante between the two sets of firms, and that stockholders are systematically better off when debt is restructured privately. 1. Introduction With, the proliferation of leveraged buyouts (LBOs) and other highly leveraged transactions, there has been growing popular concern that the corporate sector is being burdened with too much debt. Much of this concern *We would like to thank Edward Altman. Yakov Amihud, Sugato Bhattacharya, Keith Brown, Robert Bruner, T. Ronald Casper, Charles D’Ambrosio, Larry Dann, Oliver Hart, Gailen Hite, Max Holmes, Scott Lee, Gershon Mandelker. Scott Mason, Robert Merton, Wayne Mikkelson, Megan Partch, Ramesh Rao, Roy Smith, Chester Spatt, Gopala Vasudevan, and Richard West for their helpful comments. We are especially grateful to Michael Jensen (the editor) and Karen Wruck (the referee) for their many detailed and thoughtful suggestions.
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