IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/cfrwps/2203.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do financial advisors matter for M&A pre-announcement returns?

Author

Listed:
  • Betzer, André
  • Gider, Jasmin
  • Limbach, Peter

Abstract

This study documents economically meaningful and persistent financial advisor fixed effects in target firms' abnormal stock returns shortly prior to takeover announcements.Additional difference-in-differences analyses suggest that advisors are associated with lower pre-bid stock returns after their senior staff were defendants in SEC insider trading enforcement actions. Returns are higher for advisors with more previously advised deals and those located in NYC. The evidence helps explain the prevalent phenomenon of pre-bid stock returns. It contributes to the inconclusive literature on banks' exploitation of private information gained via advisory services, which is limited to disclosed, traceable activities indicative of information leakage.

Suggested Citation

  • Betzer, André & Gider, Jasmin & Limbach, Peter, 2022. "Do financial advisors matter for M&A pre-announcement returns?," CFR Working Papers 22-03, University of Cologne, Centre for Financial Research (CFR).
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:cfrwps:2203
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/250750/1/1789991951.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Meulbroek, Lisa K, 1992. "An Empirical Analysis of Illegal Insider Trading," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 47(5), pages 1661-1699, December.
    2. Acharya, Viral V. & Johnson, Timothy C., 2010. "More insiders, more insider trading: Evidence from private-equity buyouts," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 500-523, December.
    3. John M. Griffin & Tao Shu & Selim Topaloglu, 2012. "Examining the Dark Side of Financial Markets: Do Institutions Trade on Information from Investment Bank Connections?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 25(7), pages 2155-2188.
    4. Jack Bao & Alex Edmans, 2011. "Do Investment Banks Matter for M&A Returns?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 24(7), pages 2286-2315.
    5. Raghavendra Rau, P., 2000. "Investment bank market share, contingent fee payments, and the performance of acquiring firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(2), pages 293-324, May.
    6. Andriy Bodnaruk & Massimo Massa & Andrei Simonov, 2009. "Investment Banks as Insiders and the Market for Corporate Control," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 22(12), pages 4989-5026, December.
    7. Diane Del Guercio & Elizabeth R. Odders-White & Mark J. Ready, 2017. "The Deterrent Effect of the Securities and Exchange Commission's Enforcement Intensity on Illegal Insider Trading: Evidence from Run-up before News Events," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 60(2), pages 269-307.
    8. Kenneth R. Ahern & Denis Sosyura, 2014. "Who Writes the News? Corporate Press Releases during Merger Negotiations," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 69(1), pages 241-291, February.
    9. Schwert, G. William, 1996. "Markup pricing in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 153-192, June.
    10. Sara B. Moeller & Frederik P. Schlingemann & René M. Stulz, 2007. "How Do Diversity of Opinion and Information Asymmetry Affect Acquirer Returns?," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 20(6), pages 2047-2078, November.
    11. Akey, Pat & Grégoire, Vincent & Martineau, Charles, 2022. "Price revelation from insider trading: Evidence from hacked earnings news," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 143(3), pages 1162-1184.
    12. C. Edward Fee & Charles J. Hadlock & Joshua R. Pierce, 2013. "Managers with and without Style: Evidence Using Exogenous Variation," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 26(3), pages 567-601.
    13. Kedia, Simi & Zhou, Xing, 2014. "Informed trading around acquisitions: Evidence from corporate bonds," Journal of Financial Markets, Elsevier, vol. 18(C), pages 182-205.
    14. Marcin Kacperczyk & Emiliano S Pagnotta, 2019. "Chasing Private Information," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(12), pages 4997-5047.
    15. Keown, Arthur J & Pinkerton, John M, 1981. "Merger Announcements and Insider Trading Activity: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 36(4), pages 855-869, September.
    16. Andrey Golubov & Dimitris Petmezas & Nickolaos G. Travlos, 2012. "When It Pays to Pay Your Investment Banker: New Evidence on the Role of Financial Advisors in M&As," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 67(1), pages 271-312, February.
    17. Kenneth R Ahern, 0. "Do Proxies for Informed Trading Measure Informed Trading? Evidence from Illegal Insider Trades," The Review of Asset Pricing Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 10(3), pages 397-440.
    18. Michelle Lowry & Marco Rossi & Zhongyan Zhu, 2019. "Informed Trading by Advisor Banks: Evidence from Options Holdings," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(2), pages 605-645.
    19. Patrick Augustin & Menachem Brenner & Marti G. Subrahmanyam, 2019. "Informed Options Trading Prior to Takeover Announcements: Insider Trading?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5697-5720, December.
    20. Jarrell, Gregg A & Poulsen, Annette B, 1989. "Stock Trading before the Announcement of Tender Offers: Insider Trading or Market Anticipation?," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 5(2), pages 225-248, Fall.
    21. Golubov, Andrey & Yawson, Alfred & Zhang, Huizhong, 2015. "Extraordinary acquirers," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 116(2), pages 314-330.
    22. Ahern, Kenneth R., 2017. "Information networks: Evidence from illegal insider trading tips," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(1), pages 26-47.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Patrick Augustin & Menachem Brenner & Marti G. Subrahmanyam, 2019. "Informed Options Trading Prior to Takeover Announcements: Insider Trading?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 65(12), pages 5697-5720, December.
    2. Marie Dutordoir & Evangelos Vagenas‐Nanos & Patrick Verwijmeren & Betty Wu, 2021. "A rundown of merger target run‐ups," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 50(2), pages 487-518, June.
    3. Styliani Panetsidou & Angelos Synapis & Ioannis Tsalavoutas, 2022. "Price run-ups and insider trading laws under different regulatory environments," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(2), pages 601-639, August.
    4. Augustin, Patrick & Brenner, Menachem & Grass, Gunnar & Subrahmanyam, Marti G., 2016. "How do insiders trade?," CFS Working Paper Series 541, Center for Financial Studies (CFS).
    5. Madura, Jeff & Marciniak, Marek, 2014. "Bidder country characteristics and informed trading in U.S. targets," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 29(C), pages 256-284.
    6. Haselmann, Rainer & Leuz, Christian & Schreiber, Sebastian, 2021. "Know Your Customer: Relationship Lending and Bank Trading," LawFin Working Paper Series 22, Goethe University, Center for Advanced Studies on the Foundations of Law and Finance (LawFin).
    7. Bittner, Christian & Fecht, Falko & Pala, Melissa & Saidi, Farzad, 2022. "Information transmission between banks and the market for corporate control," Discussion Papers 29/2022, Deutsche Bundesbank.
    8. Ordu, Umut & Schweizer, Denis, 2015. "Executive compensation and informed trading in acquiring firms around merger announcements," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 260-280.
    9. Eliezer Fich & Viktoriya Lantushenko & Clemens Sialm, 2019. "Institutional Trading Around M&A Announcements," NBER Working Papers 25814, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    10. Podolski, Edward J. & Truong, Cameron & Veeraraghavan, Madhu, 2013. "Informed options trading prior to takeovers – Does the regulatory environment matter?," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 286-305.
    11. Ben-David, Itzhak & Birru, Justin & Rossi, Andrea, 2019. "Industry familiarity and trading: Evidence from the personal portfolios of industry insiders," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(1), pages 49-75.
    12. Aleksanyan, Mark & Danbolt, Jo & Siganos, Antonios & Wu, Betty (H.T.), 2022. "I only fear when I hear: How media affects insider trading in takeover targets," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 318-342.
    13. Pierce, Andrew T., 2024. "Capital-market effects of tipper-tippee insider trading law: Evidence from the Newman ruling," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 77(2).
    14. Alfred Yawson & Huizhong Zhang, 2021. "Central Hub M&A Advisors [Common advisers in mergers and acquisitions: determinants and consequences]," Review of Finance, European Finance Association, vol. 25(6), pages 1817-1857.
    15. Leledakis, George & Mamatzakis, Emmanuel & Pirgiotakis, Manos & Travlos, Nikolaos, 2017. "What twenty years of regulations have to say about M&As of U.S. banks?," MPRA Paper 82977, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Christian Bittner & Falko Fecht & Melissa Pala & Farzad Saidi, 2024. "Strategic Communication Among Banks," CRC TR 224 Discussion Paper Series crctr224_2024_587, University of Bonn and University of Mannheim, Germany.
    17. Gider, Jasmin, 2014. "Do SEC Detections Deter Insider Trading? Evidence from Earnings Announcements," VfS Annual Conference 2014 (Hamburg): Evidence-based Economic Policy 100343, Verein für Socialpolitik / German Economic Association.
    18. Barbopoulos, Leonidas G. & Adra, Samer & Saunders, Anthony, 2020. "Macroeconomic news and acquirer returns in M&As: The impact of investor alertness," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 64(C).
    19. Brigida, Matthew & Madura, Jeff, 2012. "Sources of target stock price run-up prior to acquisitions," Journal of Economics and Business, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 185-198.
    20. Liu, Qi & Sun, Xian & Wu, Hong, 2019. "Premier advisory services for VIP acquirers," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 1-25.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Financial Advisors; Mergers and Acquisitions; Information Leakage; Target Runups;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G14 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Information and Market Efficiency; Event Studies; Insider Trading
    • G15 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - International Financial Markets
    • G21 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Banks; Other Depository Institutions; Micro Finance Institutions; Mortgages
    • G34 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance - - - Mergers; Acquisitions; Restructuring; Corporate Governance
    • K42 - Law and Economics - - Legal Procedure, the Legal System, and Illegal Behavior - - - Illegal Behavior and the Enforcement of Law

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:zbw:cfrwps:2203. 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: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cfkoede.html .

    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.