Panel B: Lease with Renewal Options versus a Fixed-Term Lease
Two firms, A and B, are identical in all respects with the exception of how they structured their most recent lease arrangement. Firm A signed a one-year lease with an option to renew the lease at the end of every year at a pre-determined rate for a total period not to exceed five years. Firm B signed a five-year, fixed-term lease. Both firms expect to use their leased assets for five years. Although Firm A faces more uncertainty about future rental rates than does Firm B, the renewal option protects Firm A against adverse movements, and so offers only upside potential. In addition, Firm A has more operational flexibility to scale down operations if customer demand dries up. Having operational flexibility is important because it allows management the opportunity to more effectively deploy the firm’s capital if circumstances change, rather than having it tied up in leased assets for years to come. Despite these clear economic differences, the proposed approach fails to convey these differences, and instead treats the two leases the same.