Do investors' site visits affect the price of bond issues?

Taking the bonds issued by A-share listed companies on the Shenzhen Security Exchange from 2014 to 2020 as a sample, this paper explores how investors' site visits to listed companies affect the price of bond issues. We find that when more investors site visits a particular listed company, the bond spread for that company is lower. This phenomenon is more pronounced in firms that supply less information. Securities companies, mutual funds, and trust companies gain more information from site visits than banks or insurance companies. Further research shows that investors make decisions more rationally and evaluate companies' investment efficiency or financial constraints more accurately after site visits, which can reduce additional financing costs caused by information investors may have otherwise received from intermediaries with poor reputations. The results show that investors' site visits to listed companies can provide effective information for bond investors and reduce their information risk. Therefore, site visits are important to improving firms' information disclosure in the bond market and helping investors make more-rational decisions.