Bond market reaction surrounding share repurchase announcement

Abstract

I reexamine the bond market reaction to share repurchase announcement. The wealth transfer hypothesis suggests that shareholders expropriate wealth from debtholders hence the debtholders should react negative to this news. I collect daily yield-to-maturity of corporate bond during 2005-2019 to calculate excess change in bond yield spread and classify bond characteristics into five subsamples which are sensitive to the wealth redistribution effect: payment rank, issuer rating, bond rating, bond maturity, and size of repurchase. However, I do not find evidence supporting wealth redistribution effect in all bond attributes. Moreover, firm ratings of repurchasing firms are less likely to be downgraded no matter three months, six months, nine months, or twelve months after repurchase announcements compared to non-repurchasing firms.