Determinants of the Issuance of Put/Call Convertibles in the Non-Financial Sector of the US Market

The aim of this article is to characterize and show the differences between issuers of ordinary convertibles and convertibles with attached put/call provisions (put/call convertibles). The research was carried out on a sample of 379 firms in the US market, outside the financial sector, between 2002 and 2011. It turns out that the issuers of put/call convertibles are the companies with a higher risk exposure, associated with, inter alia, a higher level of indebtedness and worse ratio between the issue value to the fixed assets value. Adding the put/call provisions is aimed at decreasing issuers’ risk exposure, which may increase the market demand for this type of convertible securities.