Customer Concentration and Loan Contract Terms

Journal of Financial Economics, Forthcoming

65 Pages Posted: 29 May 2014 Last revised: 13 Aug 2016

See all articles by Murillo Campello

Murillo Campello

Cornell University - Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management; National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER)

Janet Gao

McDonough School of Business

Date Written: March 8, 2016

Abstract

We study pricing and non-pricing features of loan contracts to gauge how the credit market evaluates a firm's customer-base profile and supply-chain relations. Higher customer concentration increases interest rate spreads and the number of restrictive covenants featured in newly-initiated as well as renegotiated bank loans. Customer concentration also abbreviates the maturity of those loans as well as the relationship between firms and their banks. These effects are intensified by customers' financial distress, the level of relationship-specific investments, and the use of trade credit in customer--supplier relations. Our evidence shows that a deeper exposure to a small set of large customers bears negative consequences for a firm's relations with its creditors, revealing limits to integration along the supply chain.

Keywords: Customer Concentration, Bank Loans, Contract Terms, Financial Distress, Instrumental Variables, Fixed Effects

JEL Classification: G21, G30, G32

Suggested Citation

Campello, Murillo and Gao, Janet, Customer Concentration and Loan Contract Terms (March 8, 2016). Journal of Financial Economics, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2442314 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2442314

Murillo Campello

Cornell University - Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management ( email )

114 East Avenue
369 Sage Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/Faculty-And-Research/Profile.aspx?id=mnc35

National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) ( email )

1050 Massachusetts Avenue
Cambridge, MA 02138

Janet Gao (Contact Author)

McDonough School of Business ( email )

Washington, DC 20057
United States

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