消极承诺 Negative Covenants

在并购协议中，通常会涉及一类被称为“承诺事项”（covenants）的条款。简单说来，这类条款约定了协议各方签约之后应该去做的事情（即所谓的“积极承诺（positive covenants）”）和不应去做的事情（即所谓的“消极承诺（negative covenants）”或“限制性承诺（restrictive covenants）”）。另外，从时间轴角度分类，可分为“交割前的承诺事项”（pre-closing covenants）和“交割后的承诺事项”（post-closing covenants）。

消极承诺（Negative Convenant）：多为禁止性条件，主要指公司在过渡期（interim period）内对于某些事项负有不作为义务。

其英文释义如下：A negative covenant is an agreement that restricts a company from engaging in certain actions. Think of a negative covenant as a promise not to do something. Negative covenants are also referred to as restrictive covenants.

For example, a covenant entered into with a public company might limit the amount of dividends the firm can pay its shareholders. It could also place a cap on executives’ salaries. A negative covenant may be found in employment agreements and Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) contracts. However, these covenants are almost always found in loan or bond documents.

以下为具体例句，以加深对该术语的理解：

例句1

When a bond is issued, the features of the bond are included in a document known as the bond deed or trust indenture. The trust indenture highlights the responsibilities of an issuer and is overseen by a trustee to protect the interests of investors. The trust indenture also stipulates any negative covenants that the issuer must adhere to.

债券发行时，债券的特征包含在一份称为债券契约或信托契约的文件中。信托契约强调了发行人的责任，并由受托人监督以保护投资者的利益。信托契约还规定了发行人必须遵守的任何消极承诺。

例句2

Common restrictions placed on borrowers through negative covenants include preventing a bond issuer from issuing more debt until one or more series of bonds have matured. Also, a borrowing firm may be restricted from paying dividends over a certain amount to shareholders so as not to increase the default risk to bondholders, since the more money paid to shareholders the less available funds will be to make interest and principal payment obligations to lenders.

通过消极承诺对借款人施加的常见限制包括阻止债券发行人在一个或多个债券系列到期前发行更多债券。此外，借款公司可能被限制向股东支付超过一定数额的股息，以免增加债券持有人的违约风险，因为支付给股东的资金越多，用于向贷款人支付利息和本金的资金就越少。