Search

We provide evidence on two qualitative characteristics of financial reporting errors deemed immaterial by management (immaterial errors) and benchmark these characteristics against those of material errors corrected by restatements. With regard to relevance for equity valuation, our results suggest that investors find immaterial errors relevant, in particular those that are more severe, with valuation effects smaller than those associated with restatements disclosed in form 8-K. With regard to predictive ability for reporting quality, we find immaterial errors are informative about financial reporting reliability because they indicate increased propensities for three outcomes known to be associated with negative economic consequences: future material errors, immaterial errors and material weakness assessments. The predictive ability of immaterial errors for reporting quality is not qualitatively different from that of material errors. Viewed in the context of previous research on material errors, our results support the view that immaterial errors are informative about reporting quality; this qualitative characteristic is not part of the authoritative guidance management applies in assessing materiality of financial reporting errors. Our analysis informs debates about materiality assessments from an investor perspective.

Aim: We analyze stock market reactions to merger and acquisition announcements for firms in Europe and contribute to the literature by providing empirical evidence how the decisions with respect to alternative financing sources (equity or debt) and the methods of payment (cash or stock) affect the magnitude of the valuation effects. Research design: An event study methodology is applied to 717 M&A transactions. We analyze the size of the cumulative abnormal returns using the financing sources and payment methods and other variables as the relevant determinants. Findings: The cumulative abnormal results suggest that target shareholders and bidder shareholders in private deals benefit from mergers and acquisitions. The effect found is centered around the announcement date, making our findings consistent with market efficiency. Debt financed deals outperform equity financed deals and cash paid M&A outperform stock paid M&As, due to information asymmetry, signaling and agency effects. Originality: This study adds to our understanding of the relevance of the financing sources and the payment methods for mergers and acquisitions in Europe. Implications: This study may help practitioners to better assess the valuation effects of alternative financing sources and payment methods when acquiring other firms. JEL: G32, G34

We extend the existing literature on related party transactions (RPTs) from a domestic to an international dimension and uncover new evidence of resource transfer by foreign direct investment (FDI) firms to their foreign affiliates through overseas RPTs. Employing uniquely‐constructed RPT data of Korean firms during 2005–2010, we find significantly negative effects of such transactions on the values of parent firms, which are further confirmed from two‐stage least square regressions after correcting for the endogeneity issue. Further analyses reveal that negative valuation effects are most pronounced for overseas RPTs of FDI firms which are in the high‐tech industry and whose foreign affiliates are in emerging countries. These results indicate that high‐tech FDI firms use RPTs as a means of transferring resources to support their poorly‐performing foreign affiliates in emerging countries, especially surrounding the global financial crisis. We find little evidence that FDI firms use RPTs to withdraw or tunnel investment returns of foreign affiliates back to the home country for the benefits of investing firms during our sample period.

We return to the long-standing question ‘Who owns the assets in a defined benefit pension plan?’ Unlike earlier studies, we condition the market's assessment of implicit property rights on the sponsoring firm's financial health. Valuations of financially strong firms, and those that are strengthening, are more responsive to pension plan funding. For these firms, each extra dollar of net plan assets is valued at between $0.50 and $1.00. In contrast, for weak and weakening firms, valuation effects are statistically indistinguishable from zero. This result is consistent with the higher likelihood that they will renege on their pension obligations.

This study examines the purchase and sale of US bank branches. Large and unproductive banks with less capital sell branches to smaller and more efficient banks with more capital. I use an event study, and find a significant increase in value for both parties. These valuation effects are driven by slightly better operating performance, faster growth in loans, and a smooth transfer of purchased deposits for buyers and by improved operating performance and no substantial decrease in the growth of loans and deposits for sellers. Overall, the evidence shows that branch dealmakers operate efficiently by reallocating branches to better uses.

In this paper, I propose a theory that connects a Private Equity (PE) fund's valuation, a PE fund manager's expected ability and the likelihood of cross-border acquisitions. Using a model of costly-state verification, I show that an increase in a PE fund's valuation driven by economy-wide improvements raises the likelihood of a cross-border leveraged buyout (LBO) compared to a domestic LBO. Consistent with the model's key prediction, I find empirically that an increase in a PE fund's valuation, which captures the fund manager's expected ability, is associated with higher probability of cross-border acquisitions. The empirical estimates indicate a one-standard deviation increase in valuations, equivalent to approximately 5.2 percent of a fund's size, leads to at least an 11.9 percent increase in the predicted number of cross-border buyout deals compared to domestic LBOs.

This study examines the valuation effects of anti-money laundering (AML) enforcement actions and the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) economic sanction violations on U.S. financial institutions (FIs). Using a hand-collected sample of 308 enforcement actions issued between 2000 to 2018, results show that a civil money penalty (CMP) adversely affects a bank's value in the next quarter. Neither the magnitude, nor the type of AML-OFAC violation, and neither the bank's ability to deal with an enforcement action― as proxied for by efficiency ratios and governance mechanisms―are able to moderate the adverse effect of the CMP.

This paper studies the impact of the nonfinancial disclosure on firm value for a large sample of Indian firms, arguably emerging market with poor investor protections and legal enforcement. We proxy the nonfinancial disclosure by the Bloomberg score on the extent of a firm's Environmental, Social, and Governance disclosures, and find positive valuation effects associated with the nonfinancial disclosure. We find the nonfinancial disclosure is more valuable to standalone firms compared to business group firms. This paper shows that the positive valuation effects associated with the nonfinancial disclosure are attributable to lower cost of funds and higher operating cash flows.

We investigate the valuation effects of foreign exchange manipulation for seven systemically important banks that settled with regulators and legal authorities. The seven settlement banks suffer a total market value loss of $48 billion that far exceeds the $10 billion in regulatory and criminal fines. We attribute the difference of $38 billion to a market-imposed reputational penalty, which we define as the expected decline in the present value of future cash flows due to higher regulatory and financing costs and lower revenues. However, only five of the seven settlement banks experience reputational penalties that are higher than the assessed fines. Our evidence suggests that the market responds differentially based on the distinctive circumstances related to each institution’s involvement. We also find evidence of negative valuation effects for other competing global banks that are more pronounced for those banks that have greater systemic importance and control a greater share of the foreign exchange market.

We find that ownership by different types of institutional investors has varying implications for future firm misvaluation and governance characteristics. Dedicated institutional investors decrease future firm misvaluation, in both direction and magnitude, relative to fundamentals. In contrast, transient institutional investors have the opposite effect. Using the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Regulation FD as an exogenous shock to information dissemination, we find evidence consistent with dedicated institutions having an information advantage. Similarly, dedicated investors are associated with better future governance characteristics, while transient investors are not. The valuation effects are primarily driven by institutional portfolio concentration while the governance effects are driven by portfolio turnover. These results imply a more nuanced relationship between institutional ownership and firm value and corporate governance.

We examine whether outside directors with government experience add value to their firms. We find that government directors are more likely to miss board meetings and that their appointment announcements are greeted more negatively. Firms with government directors also experience poorer operating performance and more negative merger announcement returns, although their mergers are less likely to be challenged by antitrust authorities. These adverse valuation effects are largely alleviated when firms have large government sales, when they operate in regulated industries, or when government directors are politically connected. Using close gubernatorial election outcomes as a natural experiment and an instrumental variables approach to control for endogeneity bias do not change the results.

The $669 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provides highly subsidized financing to small businesses. The PPP is a positive shock in financing supply to the small, highly constrained publicly listed firms in our sample and has average positive treatment effects. Yet, uptake is not universal. In fact, several firms return PPP funds before use, and curiously, experience positive valuation effects when they do so. These firms desire and the markets value the release from government oversight even if it means giving up cheap funding. The PPP is also a demand shock to the banks making PPP loans. Intermediary supply effects shape PPP delivery. Larger borrowers enjoy earlier PPP access, an effect that is more pronounced in big banks. The results have implications for policy design, the costs of being public, and bank-firm relationships.

This thesis revisits the valuation relevance of a firm’s carbon risk profile using a broader notion of a firm’s carbon risk profile, which includes carbon risk exposure, and carbon risk mitigation. Prior studies that have begun to explore the value relevance of a firm’s carbon risk profile, focus on carbon risk exposure, typically proxied using its historic carbon emissions, documenting a valuation penalty on high carbon emitters due to the perceived presence of economically significant off-balance sheet liabilities. However, from extant literature, a firm’s carbon risk profile can be conceptualised into two broad aspects, namely carbon risk exposure and carbon risk mitigation. Therefore, the reliance on emissions is limited, not only due to the historic nature of this measure but, because it only partially captures a firm’s carbon risk exposure that is conceptualised in extant literature, and because it ignores how firms respond to carbon risks.This thesis is undertaken in two stages. Initially, I develop measures that capture a broader notion of a firm’s carbon risk profile. I use extant literature and interviews with 28 managers of high carbon emitting firms and five ESG analysts to develop three specific measures that include ‘other carbon risk exposure’, aside from tonnage of emissions typically found in extant literature, ‘emissions reductions’ and ‘proactive carbon responses’ (PCRs), identified from publicly available data. Next, I test the valuation effects of the broader notion of a firm’s carbon risk profile using a modified Ohlson valuation model and a sample of 51 ASX200 firms (122 firm-year observations) reporting under the National Greenhouse and Energy Reporting scheme with the necessary financial and market data. The study documents that, on average, a one standard deviation difference in the level of ‘other carbon-risk exposure’ results in a penalty of 11% of market capitalisation of the sample firms on average. This penalty is in addition to the penalty found to exist on high emitters of 10% of market capitalisation for the sample firms on average. I also find that PCRs partially mitigate the documented penalty on high emitters. The interview results suggest that in terms of PCRs, managers and analysts perceive value in firms developing intangible carbon-related capabilities around adaptability, carbon leadership and stakeholder trust. The empirical results are consistent with this proposition since I find that adaptability, carbon leadership and stakeholder trust partially mitigate the emissions penalty. Taken together these results are consistent with the argument that capital markets impound the valuation impacts of other carbon-risk exposure, aside from emissions, and PCRs identified from publicly available information in firm valuations. Furthermore, I find no evidence that emissions reductions are able to mitigate the penalty assigned to high emitters. These findings are consistent with industry concerns that emissions represent an historic measure that is not perceived to be informative in assessing the future carbon risk profile of a firm. This study contributes to literature through the development of measures of a broader carbon risk profile that are future oriented, based on publicly available information, thereby moving away from the reliance on historic emissions. Further, this study has captured some of the additional future carbon risk incremental to that captured in historic emissions and, provides empirical evidence to suggest that a firm’s broader carbon risk profile is value relevant. These findings progress the discussion on the disclosure of carbon-related non-financial information that is of interest to capital markets, which can inform corporates regarding carbon risk mitigation and policy setters in their future policy deliberations.

This study examines a European sample of 222 private firms that opted for going public through a reverse takeover transaction during the period 1992–2011. In particular, our study investigates whether reverse takeovers announcements are value-increasing transactions, especially in countries that follow strong governance structures. Moreover, the post-reverse takeover stock price and operating performance is also at the epicenter of the current study. Employing the classical event study methodology, we document significant wealth gains for the shareholders of public firms involved in reverse takeovers. The market reaction is stronger when stricter corporate governance structures prevail in the countries where public firms trade. However, the short-term gains seem to revert to substantial losses over the long-term lending support to the overreaction phenomenon. We further detect negligible improvement in the post-reverse takeover financial performance of the new entity raising further concerns over the efficacy of such transactions.

In theory financial globalisation has an ambiguous effect on monetary policy effectiveness. On the one hand, exposure to global financial cycles dampens the output effect of a tightening in monetary policy in financially integrated economies and thereby reduces monetary policy effectiveness. On the other hand, another salient feature of financial globalisation is that economies have become increasingly net long in foreign currency, which amplifies monetary policy effectiveness: economies experience larger valuation losses and wealth effects on their external balance sheets in response to an exchange rate appreciation when monetary policy is tightened, hence triggering stronger output effects. We quantify empirically the net impact of financial globalisation on monetary policy effectiveness through these two opposing channels. We find that since the 1990s the second channel has dominated so that financial globalisation has amplified monetary policy effectiveness in the typical advanced and emerging market economy. By our estimates, the output effect of a tightening in monetary policy has increased by 25% due to financial globalisation. Our results imply that financial globalisation has modified the transmission of monetary policy by strengthening the importance of the exchange rate channel.

PurposeEven as many countries are facing changes in demographic profile and new types of senior housing developments are becoming more important, there is limited evidence for the development impact of a senior house on surrounding residential property values. The purpose of this paper is to address the void in knowledge, investigating the impact of senior house developments on apartment values in Tampere, Finland.Design/methodology/approachTo specify valuation effects of proximate senior house development projects, advanced research design combining propensity score matching procedure and hedonic pricing models is used.FindingsThe results show that a senior house development has a significant positive impact on proximate residential property values within a 500 metre radius. The impact is found to be the highest in underdeveloped neighbourhoods. Nevertheless, in neighbourhoods where property values and demand for housing units are higher and senior house developments fall into the criteria of infill development, a premium is lower, but still statistically significant and notable in magnitude.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper studies apartment values only in Tampere, Finland, and it is important to notice that local regulations and market conditions may have a notable impact on the outcomes from senior house developments.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to address a number of empirical issues and provide with statistically significant evidence for positive impacts from senior house developments – encouraging investors and developers to build senior houses.

PurposeEven as multi-story apartment building development proposals in existing neighbourhoods represent a substantial component of policy debate at local planning boards, there is limited evidence for the impact of such residential developments on surrounding apartment values. This paper aims to address the void in knowledge, and the impact of multi-story apartment building developments on apartment values in residential high-rise areas located outside city and district centres is investigated in Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland.Design/methodology/approachWhether a multi-story apartment building development is followed by an increase in housing values depends on both positive and negative externalities. To specify valuation effects of proximate development projects, advanced research design combining matched sample methodology and hedonic-based difference-in-difference approach is used.FindingsIt appears from the analysis that completion of a single multi-story apartment building has an immediate positive impact on apartment values within 300 metre radius, while there is no statistically significant impact on price trend.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper studies apartment values only in Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland, and it is important to notice that local regulations and market conditions may have a notable impact on the outcomes.Originality/valueThis study is the first of its kind to provide with statistically significant evidence for positive impacts from multi-story apartment building development in Finnish residential high-rise areas and may have a crucial role in helping to dispel prejudices related to such developments.

We use events related to a proxy access rule passed by the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2010 as natural experiments to study the valuation effects of changes in shareholder control. We find that valuations increase (decrease) following increases (decreases) in perceived control, especially for firms that are poorly performing, have shareholders likely to exercise control, and where acquiring a stake is relatively inexpensive. These results suggest that an increase in shareholder control from its current level would generally benefit shareholders. However, we find that the benefits of increased control are muted for firms with shareholders whose interests may deviate from value maximization.

We show that gender diversity in corporate boards could improve firm value because of the contributions that women make to the board. Prior studies examine valuation effects of gender-diverse boards and reach mixed conclusions. To help resolve this conundrum, we consider how gender diversity could affect firm value, that is, what mechanisms could explain how female directors benefit corporate board performance. We hypothesize and provide evidence that women directors contribute to boards by offering specific functional expertise, often missing from corporate boards. The additional expertise increases board heterogeneity which Kim and Starks (2015) show can increase firm value.

Using a sample of equity closed-end funds, we document significant portfolio holdings disclosure valuation effects and strategic disclosure timing by portfolio managers. An event study analysis reveals statistically significant positive (negative) abnormal returns associated with early (late) disclosure. We find that the returns of a long-short arbitrage strategy portfolio become statistically significant exactly when the implementation of such a strategy is facilitated by the timely disclosure of portfolio holdings. Our findings support the argument that managers of funds trading at high discounts are more likely to disclose earlier in order to reduce discounts and protect themselves from activist investor attacks. This is despite the documented strong motives for late disclosure stemming from copycatting and front running threats shared with open-end fund managers.

This article examines the impact of earnout financing on the value of acquiring firms engaged in cross-border acquisitions (CBAs), using a dataset of UK, US, Canadian and Australian firms from 1992 to 2012. The results show that firms initiating international business operations via earnout-financed CBAs enhance their value more than acquirers in (a) domestic acquisitions and (b) remaining CBAs by established multinational corporations (MNCs). Our findings demonstrate the superiority of earnout financing in CBAs announced by acquirers that have no prior international business experience. The results are robust to the firms’ endogenous choice to diversify globally and to the use of earnout financing. We contend that earnouts contribute to the reduction of valuation risk faced by firms acquiring a foreign target firm for the first time. Our empirical findings contribute to the existing debate on the merit of international expansion through CBAs and the role of earnout contingent payment.

This paper develops a valuation model of the firm that provides for the expenditure of corporate resources in support of community, social or environmental causes. We show that under certain circumstances CSR expenditures create value for the firm. We also test our model by simulations and confirm that, at least under some conditions, CSR does pay off in the form of value creation.

We examine the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility activities on the value of corporations through the supply contracts with customers, one of important stakeholders. The analyses using KEJI index and supply contract announcements show that the likelihood of involving in a supply contract is lower and the announcement return is lower when CSR performance is higher. However, this negative effect of CSR is different across the level of CSR performance. The negative effects of CSR do not exist in the firms with highest level of CSR performance while most of the negative effects are concentrated in the firms with mediocre performance in CSR. These results indicate that market recognizes not best CSR activities but mediocre CSR activities as sacrifice of shareholder value.

This paper examines the role of R&D intensity in cross border strategic alliance formation. Firms can exploit their existing R&D capabilities by entering into overseas markets via strategic alliances. Consistent with our hypothesis, we find R&D intensity to be a major determinant of cross-border strategic alliance decisions involving US firms. R&D intensive firms prefer alliances in Continental Europe and Emerging Asia-Pacific regions. R&D intensity, however, cannot distinguish between the ownership forms of the overseas partner as the firm may not have the opportunity to choose the nature of the partner once the alliance decision has been made. Finally, we examine the valuation effect of cross-border strategic alliance announcements and find the associated wealth effects to be driven primarily by R&D intensity.

We study the role of outside directors in defined benefit pension plan freezes, where the interests of shareholders are in apparent conflict with the interests of firm employees. We examine the effect of independent directors on the likelihood, valuation effects, and long term consequences of plan freezes. We find that a greater percentage of independent directors makes plan freezes more likely and more valuable to shareholders, and mitigates their effect on investment and leverage levels. Our results extend evidence on the monitoring value of independent directors from shareholder-manager to shareholder-employee conflicts, consistent the predictions of agency rather than stakeholder management theories of independent director behavior.

In this paper we exploit the choice allowed by International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) regarding the presentation of interest payments on the cash flow statement to answer two related questions: First, whether the classification choice is explained by firm reporting incentives and second, whether it is value relevant. Using a UK sample, we find that firms reporting losses, with a greater proportion of their debt stemming from public sources, with CFO-based covenants and greater increases in leverage in the year of adoption are less likely to report interest payments in cash flows from operating activities (CFOA). Results also suggest that the incentive to meet or beat analyst CFO forecasts decreases, but strong corporate governance increases the probability of including interest payments in CFOA. Based on the assumption that the decision not to classify interest payments in CFOA captures lower disclosure quality or poor future expected performance, we posit that these firms should also exhibit lower valuations. Results obtained after correcting for self-selection bias confirm this assertion. We conclude that managers’ decision not to classify interest payments in CFOA is consistent with the opportunistic use of the choice allowed by IFRS. 48 6 613 650

We investigate how the lending activities abroad of a multinational bank’s local and hub affiliates have been affected by funding difficulties during the financial crisis. We find that affiliates’ local deposits and performance have been stabilizing loan supply. By contrast, relying on short-term wholesale funding has increasingly proven to be a disadvantage in the crisis, which has seen inter-bank and capital markets freeze. By introducing a liable approximate measure for intra-bank flows, we detect competition for intra-bank funding between the affiliates abroad as well as an increasing focus on the parent bank’s home market activities. In addition, the more an affiliate abroad relies on intra-bank funding in the crisis, the greater its dependence on its parent bank having a stable deposit and long-term wholesale funding position. We consider changes in long-term lending to the private sectors of 40 countries by the affiliates of the 68 largest German banks. To obtain a more precise picture, we clean our lending data from valuation effects.

Purpose – This paper aims to provide insight whether disclosed compliance with the German Corporate Governance Code (GCGC) leads to higher valuation on the German stock market. Design/methodology/approach – Based on agency theory, stakeholder theory and institutional theory, the authors conduct a meta-analysis and evaluate the value relevance of the compliance with the GCGC. Findings – The research finds that compliance with the GCGC is mainly not a value-relevant factor for German companies listed at the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Research limitations/implications – The research considered is not fully comparable with regard to observation date, full integration of the GCGC rules and company selection/sample size. Future research is encouraged to research the valuation effects of compliance with the GCGC for a longer time horizon, the use of uniform performance measures and the integration of all GCGC rules. Practical implications – Compliance with the GCGC has not proven to be a value-driver for German listed companies. The authors recommend companies to search for opportunities to make their corporate governance more comprehensive by expanding their corporate governance reporting and thus providing deeper insights on how their processes of management and control work. Originality/value – The paper is the first investigation integrating the results of ten years of “code compliance – market valuation” research in Germany. We detect reasons why soft law regulation by corporate governance codes did not function on the German stock market. We additionally address behavioral aspects why investors do not give enough relevance to companies’ corporate governance statements so far.

Business process outsourcing (BPO) has recently grown in incidence and importance. However, academic research on this phenomenon is sparse. Further, studies on outsourcing have primarily used a tra...

This study examines the impact of firms&rsquo, environmental, social and governance (ESG) initiatives on financial performance. It also compares the valuation effects of corporate social performance initiatives in developed and emerging market firms. The study was based on ESG ranking scores in the Thomson Reuters database, and the sample comprised 1317 emerging market firms and 3569 developed market firms. In comparison with developed market firms, emerging market firms had higher ESG combined scores, ESG Controversy scores, category scores of resources use, workforce, human rights and corporate social responsibility strategy scores. This study finds that stakeholder initiatives positively impact valuation effects, based on all sample results. Firm-generated controversies may decrease valuation effects in the stock market. Results indicated that ESG initiatives have a significant positive to the firm performance. The presence of independent board members and ownership by investors is a positive determinant for value creation. The adoption of best practice corporate governance principles is an important determinant of the valuation of firms. Firms&rsquo, propensity to use defence mechanisms decreases valuation effects. Developed market firms received positive valuation effects due to ESG initiatives.

This article investigates if there are valuation and operating performance gains from international cross listing, using a sample of 55 Taiwanese firms that instituted deposit receipt (DR) programs in the US, the UK and Luxemburg from 1992 to 2009. We find that Tobin’s q, stock returns and operating performance of DR issuers deteriorate and under-perform their benchmarks substantially after issue. Taiwan has been an emerging market not very accessible for foreign investors for the best part of our sample period and DR issuers from Taiwan should be in a better position to reap valuation gains and other benefits by listing their shares in more prestigious markets. Our findings suggest that the potential benefits of international cross listing might not be as significant as previously thought. These results are of practical relevance and contribute to the ongoing debate on the costs and benefits of international cross listing.

We study the choice and valuation effects of alternative flotation methods using a sample of Chinese firms that must meet the return on equity (ROE) thresholds set by the government to raise equity capital. The ROE requirement, although changed over time, seems to play an important role on the valuation and performance of seasoned equity offerings. The analysis of 219 rights and 75 underwritten offerings between 2000 and 2004 shows that Chinese firms that are not qualified for the flotation method with a higher ROE requirement suffer the most at announcement and experience significantly lower buy-and-hold abnormal returns than those that are qualified. Our results suggest that the freedom to choose their preferred flotation method may be valuable to firms that meet the higher ROE requirement. Finally, our probit models identify several determinants of the choice of flotation methods.

This paper investigates capital market reactions to announcements of corporate strategic transactions in the clean technology, or cleantech, industry. Using the event study method in a multi-country setting, we exploit a dataset of 328 hand-collected announcements of mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, and asset disposals that took place between 2001 and 2011. We provide strong evidence of significant wealth gains from cleantech deals. On average, cleantech companies earn significantly higher abnormal returns than non-cleantech companies, confirming the beneficial idiosyncrasies of the cleantech industry. These high premia are likely driven by government interventions that are believed to be a necessary pre-condition for development of clean technology. Alternatively, the premia are commanded by the acquisition of cutting-edge environmental innovations and the positive credibility spillover inherent in cleantech deals.

In recent years open-market share repurchase programs have become an important payout policy not only for U.S. firms, but also European. Vast literature has examined the effect of share repurchase announcement on developed countries, especially the U.S. Relatively little research has yet been published examining the emerging markets reaction on share repurchase programs. This study attempts to extend the knowledge with the information content of buy back announcements in Poland. The main aim of the study is to test the informational con-tent of share repurchase announcements on the Polish alternative stock market us-ing event study methodology. Our sample was formed by identifying share repur-chase announcements reported by companies listed on the NewConnect Stock Ex-change over the period 2007-2016. Due to the results of prior studies which give support for positive market reaction on share repurchase announcements (i.a. Ikenberry, Lakonishok and Vermaelen, 1995; Grullon and Michaely, 2002; Chan, Ikenberry, Lee, Wang, 2010) we hypothesize that firms announcing share repurchases on NewConnect experience positive valuation effects.

While some evidence exists on the benefits of sustainable investment for publicly traded real estate firms, little is known as to how such benefits materialize within the firm, especially on an international scale. We decompose the effects of sustainable investment on the value and performance of listed real estate investment firms across countries with and without mandatory environmental reporting on investment properties. In the US, a country without requisite reporting, we find that REITs with a more sustainable portfolio experience higher rental income, higher operating expenses, and lower interest expenses, increasing cash flows available for distribution to shareholders. These firms also carry lower systematic risk, are subject to less uninformed trading, and attract higher premiums to NAV. We find less nuanced results for real estate investment firms in the UK, which face mandatory environmental reporting. Our findings suggest that environmental reporting requirements may facilitate improvements in the environmental performance of properties and enhance transparency.

We investigate how supervisory enforcement actions (EAs) against banks affect their business borrowers. We find negative short-term valuation effects of EAs for large relationship borrowers, which are reversed after new loans are granted. Large non-relationship borrowers’ valuations are unaffected by EAs, but turn negative after relationships are established with sanctioned banks. Additionally, sanctioned banks appear to offset uncertainty and reputational damage of EAs by improving credit terms and availability for relationship and non-relationship large businesses, but decrease credit availability to small businesses. The small business credit contraction may have significant negative economic consequences due to bank dependency and credit constraints.

This paper assesses the impact of the geographic diversification of bank holding company (BHC) assets across the United States on their market valuations. Using two new identification strategies based on the dynamic process of interstate bank deregulation, we find that exogenous increases in geographic diversity reduced BHC valuations. We also find that the geographic diversification of BHC assets increased insider lending and reduced loan quality. Taken together, these findings are consistent with theories predicting that geographic diversity intensifies agency problems. The Author 2013. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Society for Financial Studies. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com., Oxford University Press.

This study investigates the role of organizational learning on the valuation effects of corporate diversification. The empirical findings suggest that corporate diversification reduces shareholders’ wealth. However, consistent with the absorptive capacity viewpoint of organizational learning, diversification performance depends on repetitive and accumulative experiences, as captured by a firm’s prior diversification activity and/or a firm’s experience in operating in multiple-business segments. Specifically, single-business firms that diversify once demonstrate significant value reduction. In contrast, multi-business firms that diversify once do not demonstrate value reduction, while single/multi-business firms that diversify multiple times demonstrate material value creation. Findings also reveal that performance is conditional on the mode of diversification since internal growth diversification show higher valuation effects than diversifications through acquisitions. These findings contribute to the literature by affirming the importance of organizational learning, a cognitive and behavioral perspective, in explaining the valuation effect of corporate diversification.

This study investigates valuation effects of mergers and acquisitions in the freight transportation industry. It is found that mergers and acquisitions create synergistic gains, especially tender offers, consistent with the view that freight transportation mergers and acquisitions occur for synergistic reasons rather than management’s desire for empire building or perk consumption. Both target’s and bidder’s shareholders are better-off, but most of the synergistic gains accrue to the target’s shareholders. Targets’ valuation effects are greater for vertical rather than horizontal mergers, indicating a positive valuation for firms that control and manage a more extensive supply chain. The bidders’ wealth effects are greater for friendly mergers. Overall, the findings have important implications for professional practice and the development of the theoretical literature.

We find that the deal structure decision to engage in a foreign asset purchase instead of acquiring a foreign target's equity is more likely when bidders are smaller, the bidder's proportion of foreign sales-to-total sales is higher and the target is in an unrelated industry. In addition, bidders tend to execute asset purchase transactions rather than acquiring a foreign target's equity when the target's corresponding country has a relatively favorable rating for rule of law, control of corruption, political stability and absence of violence, regulatory quality and economic freedom. We also find that bidders engaging in asset purchase transactions experience significantly more favorable valuation effects than those that acquire the equity of target firms.

We investigate the valuation effects related to corporate minority block purchases for a European sample of 113 purchases over 1993–2006. We argue that corporate block ownership, as opposed to institutional or individual block ownership, has several unique characteristics and can create significant short- and long-term wealth for target and acquiring firm shareholders. Because target firms that exhibit signs of inefficient monitoring or agency problems benefit the most, we conclude that corporate block ownerships can align incentives and mitigate information problems in corporate business relationships.

We investigate the valuation effects of diversification activities by Korean business groups known as chaebols. Employing an extensive dataset of Korean firms and accounting for the endogeneity problem associated with firms' diversification decisions, we offer reconciling evidence that unrelated diversification by Korean firms erodes firm value, but their related diversification does not decrease firm value. Undocumented in the existing literature, we further provide new evidence that a firm's affiliation to a large business group amplifies the valuation effect of firm-level diversification, such that the non-negative or weak positive valuation effect of related diversification is stronger for large business group firms. These findings are supportive of the notion that the unique characteristics of large business group firms such as stronger internal factor markets enable these firms to take advantage of the synergic benefits associated with related diversification. Our findings are robust to different model and sample specifications.

We investigate the stock price performance of 146 firms announcing the appointment of a new investor relations (IR) officer or the hiring of an IR firm between 1999 and 2005. We find positive abnormal returns around the announcement day. In addition, we find evidence that firms with lower valuations, higher idiosyncratic risk, greater chief executive officer holdings, and firms that announce in the post-Sarbanes-Oxley Act era experience greater valuation effects. Finally, we document significant reductions in the information asymmetry and significant increases in the liquidity and visibility of IR firms in the year following the IR announcement.

We investigate the valuation effects of industry rivals on german firms targeted by hedge funds and private equity investors. We argue that both types of investors differ from other blockholders due to their strong motivation and ability to actively engage and monitor. We find that the announcement of a change in ownership structure generates statistically significant short- and long-term intra-industry effects for rivals to the respective private equity and hedge fund targets. however, these effects differ markedly between hedge fund investments and private equity investments. We conclude that hedge funds are more aggressive than private equity investors in implementing a shareholder orientation.

Using data drawn from the Korea Exchange, the present paper examines the bidding firm’s stock price reaction to the announcement of a merger bid. The results indicate that bidders gain more from mergers involving private targets than from those involving public targets. In particular, bidders acquiring a private firm experience significant wealth gains when a new blockholder emerges from the target firm. In addition, for private targets, as the relative size of the target to the bidder increases, the bidder’s abnormal returns are likely to be higher. However, when the new blockholder dummy and relative size variable are controlled for, the differences in the bidder’s wealth gains between private and public target mergers disappear, suggesting that the bidder’s higher abnormal returns from private target mergers are related to the monitoring and information effects, not to the ownership status of target firms. Furthermore, the results indicate that a bidder acquiring a public target suffers wealth losses if the bidder is affiliated with 1 of the 30 largest chaebol groups.

Using data from the independent social choice investment advisory firm Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini (KLD), we construct a stakeholder welfare score measuring the extent to which firms meet the expectation of their non-shareholder stakeholders (such as employees, customers, communities, and environment), and find it to be associated with positive valuation effects: an increase of 1 in the stakeholder welfare score leads to an increase of 0.587 in Tobin’s Q . Furthermore, the valuation effects vary across stakeholders and the aforementioned positive effects are driven by firms’ performance on employee relations and environmental issues. These results suggest that stakeholder welfare (in particular, employee welfare and environmental performance) represents intangibles (such as reputation or human capital) crucial for shareholder value creation rather than private benefits managers pursue for their own social or economic needs.

This study investigates the valuation effects and the performance of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities adopted by the 72 CSR-awarded and the 87 non-awarded listed firms in Taiwan...

We assess the valuation effects and risk for acquirers of privatized state-owned enterprises (SOEs). The valuation effects of purchasers are positive and significant; they increase for purchasers that have recent high performance, better access to capital, and have engaged in larger acquisitions. The acquirer valuation effects are lower when the selling government is more corrupt, more bureaucratic, and a weaker financial performer. Acquirer's total and unsystematic risk increases, indicating that purchasers of SOEs realize diversification benefits. Systematic risk increases for purchasers when the government is characterized by high political risk.

Buyers of bankrupt assets could be penalized because of uncertainty about the value of such assets given their poor performance, and the absence of a guarantee offered by bankrupt estates. On the other hand, they could be rewarded if imperfections in the market for bankrupt assets result in deep discounts. In this paper, we assess 314 acquisitions of bankrupt assets over the period 1985–2006. We find that firms that acquire bankrupt assets experience significant positive valuation effects, suggesting that the market for bankrupt assets is imperfect. Second, the valuation effects are especially favorable when the acquisition is only of selected assets, and when the buyer is in the same industry as the bankrupt firm. No evidence of long run abnormal returns (above and beyond the initial valuation effects) is found for firms that acquire bankrupt assets.