The Effect of Non-negotiable Debts under the Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act on the Choice of Corporate Debt Restructuring

Under the Corporate Restructuring Promotion Act, non-negotiable debt is defined as the debt claim exempted from out-of-court debt restructuring. However, under receivership, the Bankruptcy Act requires the non-negotiable debt claims to be ranked equally with other debt claims against firms. Recently, some experts have expressed concerns about firms with large non-negotiable debts strategically filing for receivership to avoid taking responsibility for the debt claims. Further, other experts believe that non-negotiable debt holders jeopardize a firm’s workout process by re-emphasizing their debt claims during this process. This study investigates the effect of non-negotiable debts on the choice between formal receivership and an informal corporate workout, particularly if firms borrowing more from non-negotiable debt holders prefer receivership to a workout. I analyze all the receivership and workout cases recorded in Korea Investor Service Value database (KisValue) during 1999 – 2013 to examine if firms borrowing more from non-negotiable debt holders are more likely to choose receiverships over workouts. The results are consistent with my expectation. First, firms with large non-negotiable debt are more likely to choose receiverships over workouts. Second, the result remains qualitatively the same when firms are matched by using a propensity score matching approach, which is widely used to alleviate the endogeneity problem. Additional tests show that other types of non-negotiable debts such as accounts payable and foreign currency liabilities do not affect a firm’s choice between receivership and a workout, and that the effect of non-negotiable debts on the choice of debt restructuring has become pronounced in economic recession. This study contributes to the literature by introducing non-negotiable debts as a determinant of the choice between receivership and a workout.