Tender offers in South America: Are abnormal returns really high?

Different studies in developed capitalmarkets have found positive abnormalreturns of at least 15% during theannouncement date of a tender offer.Although there are almost no studiesfor South American stock markets,some studies reported positive abnormalreturns, ranging from 25% to50%, related to the announcement ofthe fi rst tender offer. In this study oneargues that estimated positive abnormalreturns in emerging markets arehigh because studies have assumed acompletely segmented capital marketby applying the market model with alocal stock market index. By allowingfor partial integration among fiveSouth American emerging markets,one shows that there are in factpositive abnormal returns previously,during, and after the announcementdate of the fi rst tender offer. However,the positive abnormal returnassociated to the announcementdate is in the order of 8%. A slightlyhigher abnormal return is obtainedusing a market model that accountsfor partial integration and downsiderisk. These results prompt towardsa lower positive abnormal return inthe sample of South American fi rmsstudied.