Titelaufnahme

This master thesis is about bonded loans, also called promissory note bonds or promissory notes. Bonded loans are a German external financing instrument. They are a mixture between bank loans and corporate bonds and mainly used by medi-um and large sized companies to fund their medium or long term capital require-ments. Bonded loans have typically terms between three and ten years and issu-ing volumes of ten to 250 million Euros. Especially since the beginning of the financial crisis in the year 2008 bonded loans became more and more important as the markets of corporate bonds and bank loans were closed or more restrictive. But also nowadays the market of bonded loans is increasing not only in Germany but also in other European countries like Austria. This thesis consists of a literature research and expert interviews. The literature research will state background information about the topic from already existing knowledge. Different financing methods like bank loans, corporate bonds, shares and bonded loans will be explained in more detail and compared to each other. A special focus will be on bonded loans and on the advantages of the different fi-nancing methods on the types of enterprises. Also the regulatory changes as a result of the introduction of Basel III and the impacts on the business financing and credit institutions will be pointed out. The practical part consists of three expert interviews which will state different views or agree with the information from the literature. The result of this master thesis is that bonded loans are a good alternative to the other three financing methods as they are very flexible, have a short and standard-ized documentation, have low transaction costs, need no external rating, have a stable demand and allow access to new investors. In view of the different types of enterprise it cannot be stated finally which financ-ing method will be the best as they are dependent on several factors like the size of the enterprise, the financing need and the legal status.