Investment and Financing Decisions in the Presence of Time-to-Build

Abstract

We investigate a firm's optimal investment, financing, and default decisions when it takes an uncertain amount of time and running costs to complete a project. A firm that makes an optimal financing decision delays investment in the presence of time-to-build, whereas a highly levered firm hastens such investment despite the lags. The optimal leverage ratio is inverted U-shaped with respect to the size of the lags. Although the equity holders can choose to default before the project is completed, the default probability is lower than that in the absence of time-to-build in most cases. The probability of default before the project's completion increases as the project becomes more profitable. When a firm can shorten expected time-to-build by bearing more costs, an unlevered firm strives to reduce the lags more than an optimally levered firm does. When the firm is highly levered, however, it invests more resources to shorten the lags than the all-equity firm does.