Dynamic Capital Structure and the Contingent Capital Option

38 Pages Posted: 1 Oct 2010 Last revised: 1 Apr 2017

See all articles by Emilio Barucci

Emilio Barucci

Politecnico di Milano - Department of Mathematics

Luca Del Viva

ESADE Business School

Date Written: March 28, 2010

Abstract

The financial crisis has emphasized the difficulties for financial companies to raise funds through conventional assets. In this environment, hybrid securities are becoming popular. In this paper we study the optimal capital structure of a company issuing a particular type of hybrid security: perpetual contingent capital, i.e., debt to be converted in equity under some conditions. A two period model with endogenous bankruptcy for a company with equity, straight debt and contingent capital is analyzed. We investigate the instrument under dif- ferent conversion rules: exogenous or optimally chosen by equity holders. We show that contingent capital reduces the spread of straight debt and expected bankruptcy costs but is also quite expensive (high spreads). A trigger imposed by the regulatory authority may induce a little use of contingent capital with an increase of bankruptcy costs.

Keywords: Contingent Capital, Dynamic Capital Structure, Leverage

JEL Classification: G21, G28, G32, G33

Suggested Citation

Barucci, Emilio and Del Viva, Luca, Dynamic Capital Structure and the Contingent Capital Option (March 28, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1685424 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1685424

Emilio Barucci (Contact Author)

Politecnico di Milano - Department of Mathematics ( email )

Piazza Leonardo da Vinci
Milan, Milano 20100
Italy

Luca Del Viva

ESADE Business School ( email )

Av. de Pedralbes, 60-62
Barcelona, 08034
Spain