Vulture Funds and the Fresh Start Accounting Value of Firms Emerging from Bankruptcy
Vulture Funds and the Fresh Start Accounting Value of Firms Emerging from Bankruptcy Miles Gietzmann University of Bocconi, Italy Helena Isidro ISCTE-IUL Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Portugal Ivana Raonic Cass Business School, City, University of London, UK Abstract: We study how distress-oriented hedge funds (vulture funds) play an important role in the fresh start valuation of firms emerging from Chapter 11 reorganization.. We find that loan-to-own vultures acquire debt positions of the distressed firm that grant dominant power in the bankruptcy negotiations, and they then use the discretion allowed by fresh start accounting to introduce valuation bias in their favor. We show that the strategic influence over fresh start values can create opportunities to increase vulture investors’ returns at the expense of other claim holders. Keywords: distress, bankruptcy, valuation, hedge fund, reporting discretion. JEL: G14, G23, G33, M41 1 1. INTRODUCTION Active hedge funds have an important role in the resolution of Chapter 11 bankruptcies. They can influence the reorganization negotiations and shift control rights in their favor (Hotchkiss and Mooradian, 1997; Kahan and Rock, 2009; Jiang et al., 2012; Lim, 2015; Ivashina et al., 2016). However, how distress-oriented hedge funds achieve that influence is unclear. While finance research underlines the positive effects of hedge fund involvement (e.g., quick recovery from bankruptcy, greater debt reduction, and more efficient contracting, Lim, 2015), legal studies argue that distressed-oriented
[Show full text]