If interest rates have increases in the past five years the company is better off keeping the bonds that they have issued because the interest rate on the bonds is lower than what the interest rate on the new loans would be.
If short-term rates will rise in the future, the company will not benefit by switching to short-term loans, for which the rate will go up in future periods.
If interest rates have declined since the bonds were issued, the company can take out new financing at a lower rate of interest and use the money from the new financing to retire the original, more expensive debt. This will lower their cost of interest for the next five years.
If the company switches to short term loans, they will essentially have to retire the bonds early as the loans become due. If they are having cash flow problems, this will make those problems worse by increasing the short term cash outflows that will be required.
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