Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Do asset sales affect firm credit risk? – Evidence from credit rating assignments

Do asset sales affect firm credit risk? – Evidence from credit rating assignments Purpose – Asset sales can have opposing effects on firm credit quality. On the one hand asset sales could signal increased credit risk resulting from distress or on the other hand they could improve internal liquidity and hence credit quality. Therefore the impact potential asset sales can have on credit quality is an empirical question and one that has previously not been examined in the literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Using credit ratings as a measure of firm credit quality, in ordered probit regressions, this study finds evidence consistent with the internal liquidity view of the asset sales‐credit risk relationship. Findings – Results from ordered probit regressions of credit ratings show that the likelihood of higher credit ratings is increasing in industry‐level turnover of real assets Originality/value – Credit‐rating agencies often cite the impact of asset sales on firm credit quality as a motivation for their rating assignments. Distress‐driven asset sales could reduce firm credit quality whereas other asset sales could result in increased internal firm liquidity and hence improve firm credit quality. This bi‐directional expectation leaves the question of how asset sales affect credit quality to be answered empirically and has not been previously tested in the literature. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Managerial Finance Emerald Publishing

Do asset sales affect firm credit risk? – Evidence from credit rating assignments

Managerial Finance , Volume 40 (9): 25 – Jul 22, 2014

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/do-asset-sales-affect-firm-credit-risk-evidence-from-credit-rating-Cz5cZ6dgJs

References (34)

Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Emerald Group Publishing Limited. All rights reserved.
ISSN
0307-4358
DOI
10.1108/MF-09-2012-0196
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Purpose – Asset sales can have opposing effects on firm credit quality. On the one hand asset sales could signal increased credit risk resulting from distress or on the other hand they could improve internal liquidity and hence credit quality. Therefore the impact potential asset sales can have on credit quality is an empirical question and one that has previously not been examined in the literature. The paper aims to discuss these issues. Design/methodology/approach – Using credit ratings as a measure of firm credit quality, in ordered probit regressions, this study finds evidence consistent with the internal liquidity view of the asset sales‐credit risk relationship. Findings – Results from ordered probit regressions of credit ratings show that the likelihood of higher credit ratings is increasing in industry‐level turnover of real assets Originality/value – Credit‐rating agencies often cite the impact of asset sales on firm credit quality as a motivation for their rating assignments. Distress‐driven asset sales could reduce firm credit quality whereas other asset sales could result in increased internal firm liquidity and hence improve firm credit quality. This bi‐directional expectation leaves the question of how asset sales affect credit quality to be answered empirically and has not been previously tested in the literature.

Journal

Managerial FinanceEmerald Publishing

Published: Jul 22, 2014

Keywords: Liquidity; Credit

There are no references for this article.