Payment-In-Kind Bond

Payment-In-Kind Bond

A bond in which coupon payments come in the form of more bonds, rather than cash. At times, the investor has the option of choosing whether to accept cash or payment-in-kind, but more often this option resides with the issuer. A problem with PIK bonds for the issuer is the fact that it becomes tempting to pay coupons with more debt rather than cash when the company has a liquidity problem. Of course, doing this often only adds to the issuer's liquidity problems. This type of bond was not unusual during the private equity boom in the mid-2000s, but became rare during the credit crunch at the end of the decade.