A company bond is essentially a loan made by one company to another.

One way in which business capital can be raised is through bonds.

There are many kinds of bonds in reality. In the game, bonds are not tradeable and zero-coupon.

There are two parties to a bond: the issuer and the buyer. The issuer is the company that is seeking to borrow money. The buyer is the company that is willing to lend money. The issuer specifies the terms of the bond.

The elements of a bond are (1) the price, (2) the face value, (3) the maturity date, and (4) the coupon rate. In layman's terms, these are (1) the amount of the loan, (2) the amount that must be repaid at the end of the loan, (3) the date at which the loan ends, and (4) the interest rate of the loan.

For game play reasons, the issuer specifies the face value and the maturity date, and by implication the amount sought. The coupon rate is set by the system, based on the official interest rate and the issuer's credit rating.

When a company issues a bond, the bond is put on the market. When another company buys the bond, the loan is made and the bond comes into effect. At the end of the bond, the system will transfer the face value of the bond less any applicable tax from the company that issued the bond to the company that is holding the bond.

It is possible to repay a bond before the maturity date.

Bonds are less risky than shares, but not risk free. A company bond can default. In the event of a default, the lender will receive the price of the bond or in other words the principal of the loan back, and so will only miss out on the coupon payment.

Players should assess a borrower's capacity to repay a bond through their credit rating and repayment history.