Kursreaktionen anläßlich der Börseneinführung von Tochterunternehmen — Signaling oder verbesserte Unternehmenskontrolle in Konzernen?

Summary This paper deals with parent firm’s stock price reactions to equity carve-outs. In the theoretical part two competing hypothesis regarding the carve-out decision are discussed, namely the adverse selection and the managerial discretion hypothesis. In the second part of the paper an empirical study for the German capital market is presented. First, it is shown that there is a significant positive parent firm’s stock price reaction to the announcement of an equity carve-out, at least within some periods. Second, we found a significant negative abnormal return in the stock of the parent company within the first six months after the carve-out. This capital market anomaly has recently been documented also for the US market. Third, it is shown that stock price reactions are more likely when the terms of the carve-out are suited to reduce the extent of internal capital markets. This corroborates the managerial discretion hypothesis and hence the higher control efficiency of external capital markets.