IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/cup/jfinqa/v48y2013i04p1119-1144_00.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Corporate Pension Plans as Takeover Deterrents

Author

Listed:
  • Cocco, João F.
  • Volpin, Paolo F.

Abstract

We use UK data to show that firms that sponsor a defined-benefit pension plan are less likely to be targeted in an acquisition and, conditional on an attempted takeover, they are less likely to be acquired. Our explanation is that the uncertainty in the value of pension liabilities is a source of risk for acquirers of the firm's shares, which works as a takeover deterrent. In support of this explanation we find that these same firms are more likely to use cash when acquiring other firms, and that the announcement of a cash acquisition is associated with positive announcement effects.

Suggested Citation

  • Cocco, João F. & Volpin, Paolo F., 2013. "Corporate Pension Plans as Takeover Deterrents," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(4), pages 1119-1144, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:48:y:2013:i:04:p:1119-1144_00
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S0022109013000355/type/journal_article
    File Function: link to article abstract page
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Rauh, Joshua D. & Stefanescu, Irina & Zeldes, Stephen P., 2020. "Cost saving and the freezing of corporate pension plans," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    2. Chaudhry, Neeru & Kattamuri, Rohit, 2024. "Do defined contribution plans create value for shareholders?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 616-633.
    3. Hicham Meghouar, 2024. "Takeover in Europe: Target characteristics and acquisition likelihood," Journal of Forecasting, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 43(7), pages 2588-2606, November.
    4. Liang, Hao & Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2020. "Cross-border acquisitions and employment policies," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Katsafados, Apostolos G. & Leledakis, George N. & Pyrgiotakis, Emmanouil G. & Androutsopoulos, Ion & Fergadiotis, Manos, 2024. "Machine learning in bank merger prediction: A text-based approach," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 312(2), pages 783-797.
    6. Chaudhry, Neeru & Au Yong, Hue Hwa & Veld, Chris, 2017. "Tax avoidance in response to a decline in the funding status of defined benefit pension plans," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 99-116.
    7. Hong Zhu & Qi Zhu, 2016. "Mergers and acquisitions by Chinese firms: A review and comparison with other mergers and acquisitions research in the leading journals," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 1107-1149, December.
    8. Vafeas, Nikos & Vlittis, Adamos, 2018. "Independent directors and defined benefit pension plan freezes," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 505-518.
    9. Xu, Xixiong & Duan, Lingling, 2023. "Confucianism and employee stock ownership plans: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 859-872.
    10. Carlos J. O. Trejo‐Pech & Michael A. Gunderson & Dayton M. Lambert, 2021. "Mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. agribusiness sector, 1990–2017," Agribusiness, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 37(4), pages 713-730, October.
    11. Duygun, Meryem & Huang, Bihong & Qian, Xiaolin & Tam, Lewis H.K., 2018. "Corporate pension plans and investment choices: Bargaining or conforming?," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 519-537.
    12. Chen, Yangyang & Ge, Rui & Zolotoy, Leon, 2017. "Do corporate pension plans affect audit pricing?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 13(3), pages 322-337.
    13. Michael Kisser & John Kiff & Mauricio Soto, 2017. "Do Managers of U.S. Defined Benefit Pension Plan Sponsors Use Regulatory Freedom Strategically?," Journal of Accounting Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 1213-1255, December.
    14. Joshua D. Rauh & Irina Stefanescu & Stephen P. Zeldes, 2020. "Cost Saving and the Freezing of Corporate Pension Plans," NBER Working Papers 27251, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    15. Amanjot Singh & Harminder Singh, 2022. "Shareholder response to pension deficit: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic," Journal of Economics and Finance, Springer;Academy of Economics and Finance, vol. 46(3), pages 566-574, July.
    16. Cassella, Stefano & Rizzo, A. Emanuele, 2023. "The equity value implications of court ideology: Evidence from federal judge turnover," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:cup:jfinqa:v:48:y:2013:i:04:p:1119-1144_00. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Kirk Stebbing (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.cambridge.org/jfq .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.