Determinants of Issuance of Corporate Bonds by Listed Firms in the Nairobi Securities Exchange
Abstract
The main purpose of the study was to investigate th
e determinants of corporate bonds
issuance by listed firms in the Nairobi Securities
Exchange, Kenya. The study used both
descriptive and quantitative research designs. The
population of the study was made up
of all the eleven companies which have issued Corpo
rate Bonds in Kenya from 2001 to
2013. From the population of all eleven companies t
hat issued CB during the period
under the study, only those listed on the Nairobi S
ecurities Exchange were selected this
was due to the availability of data and other infor
mation as they were required by the
Companies Act to publish their annual report. The s
tudy employed the use of secondary
data, from which data was largely quantitative in n
ature was extracted from audited
annual reports and financial statements of individu
al sampled companies sourced from
CMA, NSE and CBK. Multiple regression analysis was
used to determine how factors
identified above relate to the Corporate Bond amoun
t issued as presented in the previous
chapter. Descriptive statistics like frequencies, r
anking and mean were used. This was
done using SPSS Statistical computer package and ad
vanced MS Excel. The study
findings established that tenure period of corporat
e bonds affects their demand. Investors
being rational are skeptical about postponing consu
mption of money for longer period of
time and would rather invest in ‘short-term’ period
s. The higher the frequency of
redemption of the principle reduces the return of t
he bonds as it affect interest generating
ability of the bonds, thus investors don’t prefer h
igher short redemption periods. long
subscription period of corporate bonds affect inves
tments in the same. This follows that
some investors take longer to decide on whether to
invest in the bond and/or others look
to financial resources for the same thus short peri
od cut them off. Interest rate is the
major revenue centre for corporate bonds, thus, the
higher the interest, the higher the
return. Thus, investors prefer higher interest gene
rating bonds. The study recommends
that in order to increase bond subscription, the is
suers should address the regulations
governing the particular issue. Of more importance
are the regulations on the tenure
period which should be short and principle redempti
on structure to be reduced as this
increases the interest generating ability of the bo
nds making it more attractive
Publisher
University of Nairobi