IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/quaeco/v51y2011i1p69-81.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Why are proposed spinoffs withdrawn?

Author

Listed:
  • Harris, Oneil
  • Madura, Jeff

Abstract

While there are economic motives and empirical support for spinoffs, about one in every four planned spinoffs is withdrawn. This study is the first to explain why some spinoffs are withdrawn. We find that the probability that a spinoff is withdrawn is inversely related to the share price response to proposed spinoff announcement. The likelihood of a proposed spinoff withdrawal is also inversely related to the change in the industry conditions of the unit and parent during the spinoff interval. Moreover, a withdrawal is more likely when the change in the unit's industry valuation is less favorable than the parent's industry valuation over the interval, and when the market for takeovers is weak. These results suggest that market timing influences the decision to withdraw a proposed spinoff. Overall, firms are more likely to withdraw their spinoff proposals when their respective industry conditions following the spinoff proposal announcement reduce their potential for extracting hidden value.

Suggested Citation

  • Harris, Oneil & Madura, Jeff, 2011. "Why are proposed spinoffs withdrawn?," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 69-81, February.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:quaeco:v:51:y:2011:i:1:p:69-81
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1062-9769(10)00070-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ahn, Seoungpil & Denis, David J., 2004. "Internal capital markets and investment policy: evidence from corporate spinoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 489-516, March.
    2. McNeil, Chris R. & Moore, William T., 2005. "Dismantling internal capital markets via spinoff: effects on capital allocation efficiency and firm valuation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 11(1-2), pages 253-275, March.
    3. Ahn, Seoungpil & Walker, Mark D., 2007. "Corporate governance and the spinoff decision," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 76-93, March.
    4. Ming Dong & David Hirshleifer & Scott Richardson & Siew Hong Teoh, 2006. "Does Investor Misvaluation Drive the Takeover Market?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 61(2), pages 725-762, April.
    5. Rosenfeld, James D, 1984. "Additional Evidence on the Relation between Divestiture Announcements and Shareholder Wealth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 39(5), pages 1437-1448, December.
    6. Tim Loughran & Jay R. Ritter, 2002. "Why Don't Issuers Get Upset About Leaving Money on the Table in IPOs?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 15(2), pages 413-444, March.
    7. Debra J. Aron, 1991. "Using the Capital Market as a Monitor: Corporate Spinoffs in an Agency Framework," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 22(4), pages 505-518, Winter.
    8. Kee H. Chung & Stephen W. Pruitt, 1994. "A Simple Approximation of Tobin's q," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 23(3), Fall.
    9. Dunbar, Craig G., 1998. "The Choice between Firm-Commitment and Best-Efforts Offering Methods in IPOs: The Effect of Unsuccessful Offers," Journal of Financial Intermediation, Elsevier, vol. 7(1), pages 60-90, January.
    10. Rhodes-Kropf, Matthew & Robinson, David T. & Viswanathan, S., 2005. "Valuation waves and merger activity: The empirical evidence," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 561-603, September.
    11. Benveniste, Lawrence M. & Spindt, Paul A., 1989. "How investment bankers determine the offer price and allocation of new issues," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 24(2), pages 343-361.
    12. Yuanzhi Luo, 2005. "Do Insiders Learn from Outsiders? Evidence from Mergers and Acquisitions," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(4), pages 1951-1982, August.
    13. Ritter, Jay R., 1987. "The costs of going public," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(2), pages 269-281, December.
    14. Ritter, Jay R. & Warr, Richard S., 2002. "The Decline of Inflation and the Bull Market of 1982–1999," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(1), pages 29-61, March.
    15. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Yan, An, 2004. "A theory of corporate spin-offs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 72(2), pages 259-290, May.
    16. Brav, Alon & Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R. & Michaely, Roni, 2005. "Payout policy in the 21st century," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(3), pages 483-527, September.
    17. Charles M. C. Lee & James Myers & Bhaskaran Swaminathan, 1999. "What is the Intrinsic Value of the Dow?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(5), pages 1693-1741, October.
    18. Mikkelson, Wayne H. & Partch, M. Megan, 1988. "Withdrawn Security Offerings," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 23(2), pages 119-133, June.
    19. Daley, Lane & Mehrotra, Vikas & Sivakumar, Ranjini, 1997. "Corporate focus and value creation Evidence from spinoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 257-281, August.
    20. Martin, Kenneth J, 1996. "The Method of Payment in Corporate Acquisitions, Investment Opportunities, and Management Ownership," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(4), pages 1227-1246, September.
    21. Burch, Timothy R. & Nanda, Vikram, 2003. "Divisional diversity and the conglomerate discount: evidence from spinoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 69-98, October.
    22. Berger, Philip G & Ofek, Eli, 1999. "Causes and Effects of Corporate Refocusing Programs," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 12(2), pages 311-345.
    23. Kasim Alli & Gabriel G. Ramírez & Kenneth K. Yung, 2001. "Withdrawn Spin-Offs: An Empirical Analysis," Journal of Financial Research, Southern Finance Association;Southwestern Finance Association, vol. 24(4), pages 603-616, December.
    24. William F. Maxwell & Ramesh P. Rao, 2003. "Do Spin‐offs Expropriate Wealth from Bondholders?," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(5), pages 2087-2108, October.
    25. Elliott, William B. & Koeter-Kant, Johanna & Warr, Richard S., 2007. "A valuation-based test of market timing," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 13(1), pages 112-128, March.
    26. Graham, John R. & Harvey, Campbell R., 2001. "The theory and practice of corporate finance: evidence from the field," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(2-3), pages 187-243, May.
    27. Busaba, Walid Y. & Benveniste, Lawrence M. & Guo, Re-Jin, 2001. "The option to withdraw IPOs during the premarket: empirical analysis," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 60(1), pages 73-102, April.
    28. Tim Loughran & Jay Ritter, 2004. "Why Has IPO Underpricing Changed Over Time?," Financial Management, Financial Management Association, vol. 33(3), Fall.
    29. Lang, Larry H P & Stulz, Rene M, 1994. "Tobin's q, Corporate Diversification, and Firm Performance," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1248-1280, December.
    30. Robert Gertner & Eric Powers & David Scharfstein, 2002. "Learning about Internal Capital Markets from Corporate Spin‐offs," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2479-2506, December.
    31. Schipper, Katherine & Smith, Abbie, 1983. "Effects of recontracting on shareholder wealth : The case of voluntary spin-offs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 12(4), pages 437-467, December.
    32. Chan, Konan & Ikenberry, David L. & Lee, Inmoo, 2007. "Do managers time the market? Evidence from open-market share repurchases," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2673-2694, September.
    33. Malcolm Baker & Jeffrey Wurgler, 2002. "Market Timing and Capital Structure," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(1), pages 1-32, February.
    34. Miles, James A & Rosenfeld, James D, 1983. "The Effect of Voluntary Spin-Off Announcements on Shareholder Wealth," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 38(5), pages 1597-1606, December.
    35. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1980. "Measuring security price performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 8(3), pages 205-258, September.
    36. Desai, Hemang & Jain, Prem C., 1999. "Firm performance and focus: long-run stock market performance following spinoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 54(1), pages 75-101, October.
    37. Busaba, Walid Y. & Benveniste, Lawrence M. & Guo, Re-Jin, 2001. "Erratum to:'The option to withdraw IPOs during the premarket: empirical analysis' : [Journal of Financial Economics 60 (2001) 73-102]," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 477-478, September.
    38. Amy Dittmar & Anil Shivdasani, 2003. "Divestitures and Divisional Investment Policies," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(6), pages 2711-2744, December.
    39. Smith, Michael P, 1996. "Shareholder Activism by Institutional Investors: Evidence for CalPERS," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 51(1), pages 227-252, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Chen, Han-Sheng & Lin, Ying-Chou & Lin, Yu-Chen, 2024. "Reexamining information asymmetry related to corporate spin-offs," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 190-205.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nazir Saima & Chisti Khalid, 2023. "Corporate Spin-Offs and Shareholders’ Wealth: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda," Acta Universitatis Sapientiae, Economics and Business, Sciendo, vol. 11(1), pages 42-63, October.
    2. Dmitri Boreiko & Maurizio Murgia, 2013. "European spin-offs Origin, value creation, and long-term performance," BEMPS - Bozen Economics & Management Paper Series BEMPS05, Faculty of Economics and Management at the Free University of Bozen.
    3. Harris, Oneil & Madura, Jeff, 2010. "Cause and effects of poison pill adoptions by spinoff units," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 62(4), pages 307-330, July.
    4. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Krishnan, Karthik & Nandy, Debarshi K., 2014. "The effects of corporate spin-offs on productivity," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 72-98.
    5. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & Liu, Mark H., 2011. "Institutional trading, information production, and the choice between spin-offs, carve-outs, and tracking stock issues," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 17(1), pages 62-82, February.
    6. Feng, Yi & Nandy, Debarshi K. & Tian, Yisong S., 2015. "Executive compensation and the corporate spin-off decision," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 94-117.
    7. Chemmanur, Thomas J. & He, Shan, 2016. "Institutional trading, information production, and corporate spin-offs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 54-76.
    8. Ryan P. McDonough, 2023. "Corporate communication and shareholder base retention: evidence from spin-offs," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(4), pages 1283-1327, May.
    9. Prezas, Alexandros P. & Simonyan, Karen, 2015. "Corporate divestitures: Spin-offs vs. sell-offs," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C), pages 83-107.
    10. Bonaimé, Alice Adams & Öztekin, Özde & Warr, Richard S., 2014. "Capital structure, equity mispricing, and stock repurchases," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 26(C), pages 182-200.
    11. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda & Jan Svejnar, 2009. "Divestitures, privatization and corporate performance in emerging markets," The Economics of Transition, The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, vol. 17(1), pages 43-73, January.
    12. Md Hamid Uddin, 2010. "Corporate Spin-Offs And Shareholders' Value: Evidence From Singapore," The International Journal of Business and Finance Research, The Institute for Business and Finance Research, vol. 4(4), pages 43-58.
    13. Chen, Han-Sheng & Lin, Ying-Chou & Lin, Yu-Chen, 2024. "Reexamining information asymmetry related to corporate spin-offs," The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 190-205.
    14. Dunbar, Craig G. & Foerster, Stephen R., 2008. "Second time lucky? Withdrawn IPOs that return to the market," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 87(3), pages 610-635, March.
    15. Harris, Oneil & Glegg, Charmaine, 2008. "The wealth effects of cross-border spinoffs," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(5), pages 461-476, December.
    16. Justin Law & Wayne Yu, 2018. "Corporate spinoffs and executive compensation," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 12(1), pages 1-25, December.
    17. Jan Hanousek & Evžen Kočenda & Jan Švejnar, 2006. "Rozdělení, privatizace podniků a jejich výkonnost [Breakups, privatization and firms" performance]," Politická ekonomie, Prague University of Economics and Business, vol. 2006(4), pages 467-489.
    18. A. Jongbloed, 2004. "Spin-Offs. Implications for Corporate Policies," Review of Business and Economic Literature, KU Leuven, Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB), Review of Business and Economic Literature, vol. 0(4), pages 569-588.
    19. Ulrike Malmendier, 2018. "Behavioral Corporate Finance," NBER Working Papers 25162, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    20. Ahn, Seoungpil & Denis, David J., 2004. "Internal capital markets and investment policy: evidence from corporate spinoffs," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 71(3), pages 489-516, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Spinoff withdrawals Market timing;

    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:eee:quaeco:v:51:y:2011:i:1:p:69-81. 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.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with 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: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/620167 .

    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.