Relative information asymmetry as a determinant of the market reaction to corporate financing announcements

Information-asymmetry-based models predict that the market should react negatively to unanticipated external financing. Previous empirical studies lend limited support to these conjectures. This study examines the anticipation issue using financial analysts' earnings-forecast errors as a proxy for information available prior to the external-financing announcement. The conjecture is that external financing would be less anticipated for firms which financial analysts cannot accurately predict their earnings. Event study results indicate that high-prediction-error firms exhibit significantly lower announcement period returns than lowprediction-error firms for non-convertible debt, convertible debt, and common stock offerings.     

绿色债券发行能缓解企业债务违约风险吗？——基于多期DID模型的研究

运用理论模型对企业发行不同债券时的差异性情景进行分析,提出企业的绿色债券发行对自身债务违约风险存在抑制效应,并选取2016—2020年1604家上市非金融公司的年度面板数据,基于多期DID模型进行实证检验。研究表明：企业发行绿色债券可以显著降低自身债务违约风险;企业发行绿色债券可以通过缓解融资约束、降低债务融资成本、提高股票流动性和增强绿色声誉这四个渠道降低自身的债务违约风险;外部融资依赖度高、研发支出占比低、信息披露程度高和管理者短视程度低的企业发行绿色债券可以更显著地降低自身债务违约风险。政策上应该进一步引导企业合理发行绿色债券,推动绿色金融的发展。     

The Market Perception of Convertible Debt Versus Straight Debt: some Empirical Evidence from U.S. Firms and Non-U.S. Firms Listed in the U.S.

Accounting for convertible debt has long been a source of controversy in the accounting profession in the U.S. Current U.S. accounting rules require classifying convertible debt at date of issuance as "entirely debt" until conversion, despite numerous studies that assert that convertible debt is not "entirely debt", but is a blend of debt and equity. Convertible debt has taken on international interest because of the issuance of International Accounting Standard (IAS) 32, Financial Instruments; Disclosure and Presentation, which prescribes reporting separate debt and equity components for convertible debt. This study examines convertible debt issued by U.S. firms and non-U.S. firms listed in the U.S. using a levels approach. Specifically, convertible debt is compared to straight debt and contrary to ex ante expectation, convertible debt was not found to be perceived as being significantly different than straight debt for U.S. firms for any years and is statistically different in only two of the six years tested for non-U.S. firms. The validity of this study's findings is underscored by its research design, which compares convertible debt and straight debt issued by the same firms. The findings suggest that investors regard reported amounts of convertible debt similar to straight debt in their assessment of firm value.     

Determinants of the stock price reaction to leveraged buyouts

This paper investigates the determinants of leveraged buyout activity through the use of an abnormal return premium from the time of the first announcement through the final trading day. Consistent with the free. cash flow theory, firms with either high free cash flow or low Tobin’s q have higher abnormal returns. However, the returns to firms with both high free cash flow and low Tobin’s q are lower than firms with just one of these characteristics. Firms which substantially increase leverage and management buyouts with high insider ownership prior to the buyout have lower abnormal returns. Firms with lower risk, and therefore greater debt capacity, have higher abnormal returns.     

Determinants of the stock price reaction to leveraged buyouts

Abtract  This paper investigates the determinants of leveraged buyout activity through the use of an abnormal return premium from the time of the first announcement through the final trading day. Consistent with the free cash flow theory, firms with either high free cash flow or low Tobin’s q have higher abnormal returns. Howerver, the returns to firms with both high free cash flow and low Tobin’s q are lower than firms with just one of these characteristics. Firms which substantially increase leverage and management buyouts with high insider ownership prior to the buyout have lower abnormal returns. Firms with lower risk, and therefore greater debt capacity, have higher abnormal returns.     

Mandated Recognition of Employee Stock Option Expense – The Case of Canada

On December 18, 2003 the Accounting Standards Board of Canada announced that all firms registered in Canada would be required to expense stock options‐based compensation effective January 1, 2004. While a few firms had voluntarily opted to expense stock options prior to this date, the vast majority of firms had not. This study investigates the market reaction to this announcement by listed firms in the Toronto Stock Exchange that continued to disclose option expense rather than report it in the financial statement. We find no average market reaction by our sample firms affected by this mandate around the announcement date, but a significantly negative market reaction during the 5‐day window around the issuance date of the exposure draft. However, in cross‐sectional tests around the mandated expense announcement date, we find a significant negative relationship between the cumulative abnormal returns and the Black–Scholes value (and number) of options outstanding and of options granted the previous year. These results suggest that the magnitude of the market reaction to the mandated expense announcement is related to the firm's usage of options. Our results provide further evidence that stock prices may not fully impound information disclosed in footnotes.     

Market effects of private equity placement: Evidence from Chinese equity and bond markets

Research has provided empirical evidence for the stock market reaction toward private placement; however, similar research has not been conducted in terms of the bond market. Using the event study method, we empirically examine the explanatory power of the signaling, free cash flow, and wealth transfer hypotheses based on the reaction of the stock market, bond market, and firm abnormal returns to the private placement announcement. The results show that the stock market has a negative reaction toward private placement, whereas the bond market has a positive reaction. The results also show that the scale of private placement is correlated with the severity of the market reaction. Abnormal returns indicate no significant change both before and after the private placement, and they are unaffected by the scale of private placement. These results are consistent with the wealth transfer hypothesis; however, the market reaction is not attributable to the signaling hypothesis and the free cash flow hypothesis. Extensive research shows that the abnormal returns of private placement change dramatically in non-state-owned enterprises and firms with low credit rating bonds, whereas the bond maturity has no significant impact on the abnormal returns—the wealth transfer effect of private placement is stronger in non-state-owned enterprises and firms with low credit rating bond.     

Executive compensation,method of payment and abnormal returns to bidding firms at takeover announcements

This study investigates the association between method of payment, long-term performance plans, managerial stockholdings and abnormal returns to bidding firms at takeover announcements, using a cross-sectional regression methodology. Previous studies have examined each of these factors separately. The results indicate that firms with long-term performance plans and high managerial stockholdings in cash offers experience significantly higher abnormal returns at the announcement of mergers prior to 1980. The study provides additional evidence in explaining the previous conflicting results (Jensen and Ruback, 1985), examining the stock market reaction of bidding firms at merger announcements.     

International acquisitions in the united states: Evidence from returns to foreign bidders

This paper provides evidence on the minimally explored topic of abnormal returns earned by stockholders of foreign bidders seeking to acquire a target firm in the USA. Four sources of influence on abnormal returns are identified: changes in net wealth of the bidder associated with changes in exchange rates; possible value-destroying managerial discretionary behavior by bidders with excess cash flows, as suggested by Jensen; comparative advantages for foreign bidders domiciled in relatively favorable tax jurisdictions; ownership status of the target, i.e. whether the target is an entire firm and whether it involves divested assets. The study includes 77 firms from 10 countries. The results show that stockholders of foreign bidders earn significant, negative abnormal returns surrounding the announcement of an acquisition in the USA. These abnormal returns become increasingly negative over the 15 days after the announcement of the acquisition, indicating that more information about the acquisition is revealed to investors subsequent to the initial announcement. Cross-sectional regressions indicate that relative exchange rates and cash positions explain variation in abnormal returns. A decline in the value of the dollar increases abnormal returns for the foreign bidder, thus supporting the net wealth hypothesis. The results also show that cash-rich foreign firms tend to enjoy higher abnormal returns when making acquisitions in the USA. The result provides support for the Froot and Stein cash-constrained hypothesis rather than for Jensen's free-cash-flow theory.     

The stock performance of America's 100 Best Corporate Citizens

We consider the stock performance of America's 100 Best Corporate Citizens following the annual survey by Business Ethics. We examine both possible short-term announcement effects around the time of the survey's publication, and whether longer-term returns are higher for firms that are listed as good citizens. We find some evidence of a positive market reaction to a firm's presence in the Top 100 firms that are made public, and that holders of the stock of such firms earn small abnormal returns during an announcement window. Over the year following the announcement, companies in the Top 100 yield negative abnormal returns of around 3%. However, such companies tend to be large and with stocks exhibiting a growth style, which existing studies suggest will tend to perform poorly. Once we allow for these firm characteristics, the poor performance of the highly rated firms declines. We also find companies that are newly listed as good citizens and companies in the Top 100 but outside the S&P 500 can provide considerable positive abnormal returns to investors, even after allowing for their market capitalization, price-to-book ratios, and sectoral classification.     

Government intervention in European mergers and acquisitions

The increasing globalization of economies has leveraged protectionist attitudes in different countries during the last decades. In the context of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A), national governments have intervened to “protect” big domestic firms and their industries from foreign bidders. Despite the potential for severe implications of these actions on the internationalization of firms and development of markets, the research in this area is relatively scarce, and we still know very little about the real causes and consequences of government intervention. In this paper, we study government opposition to cross-border European M&A during the period 1997–2017, an era of important changes in Europe. Using an event study methodology, we examine abnormal returns for targets and their rivals in the time period prior to actual intervention to gauge if investors perceive intervened deals as harmful events for the industry, which could justify government intervention. We use a hand collected sample of 1,574 EU15 rival firms for 48 mergers, of which 18 experience government intervention. Entropy balanced regression models show that rivals of intervened targets earn significantly lower returns relative to rivals of non-intervened targets on deal announcement. Nevertheless, rivals’ abnormal returns are not negative, suggesting that intervened deals are not perceived ex ante as harmful for industry competitiveness. The results are more consistent with investors’ ability to identify likely blocked deals, which puts downward pressure on abnormal returns to both the target companies and their rivals. These findings indicate that government interventions against foreign bidders seem to have an economic cost in the sector that is anticipated by the investors.     

The reaction of security prices to tracking stock announcements

This paper provides some empirical evidence on a relatively new and increasingly prevalent form of equity restructuring called tracking stock. We identify the effects associated with tracking stock announcements by excluding from our sample those announcement events that include other significant news announcements on the event date, such as announcements of acquisitions and earnings. For the 35 announcement events that fit this criteria, we find a mean abnormal return of over 3 percent in the two-day period surrounding the announced proposal to issue a tracking stock, with 30 of the 35 firms in the sample earning positive abnormal returns. The views expressed in this paper are that of the author(s) and do not reflect the views or opinions of Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. or any of its affiliates.     

The Impact of Horizontal Mergers on Rivals: Gains to Being Left Outside a Merger

It is commonly perceived that firms do not want to be outsiders to a merger between competitor firms. We instead argue that it is beneficial to be a non-merging rival firm to a large horizontal merger. Using a sample of mergers with expert identification of relevant rivals and the event-study methodology, we find rivals generally experience positive abnormal returns at the merger announcement date. We also find that the stock reaction of rivals to merger events is not sensitive to merger waves; hence, 'future acquisition probability' does not drive the positive abnormal returns of rivals. Further, we find the positive (or non-negative) abnormal returns of rivals to be robust when considering heterogeneity in merger and rival characteristics.     

The Impact of Debt-Equity Reporting Classifications on the Firm's Decision to Issue Hybrid Securities

Abstract

We test the influence of classification of securities into liabilities and equity on firms' financing choices, using as our setting the change in reporting classification of hybrid securities following SFAS 150. We find that this change affected the decision of firms to issue mandatorily redeemable preferred shares (MRPS). Following the requirement that firms classify the debt-like hybrid security MRPS as a liability, the share of MRPS issuances in firms' new financing declined. Characteristics of firms issuing MRPS also changed. While prior to SFAS 150 firms with higher levels of debt and lower coverage ratios chose to issue MRPS and not debt, after its adoption, the decision to issue MRPS is no longer related to firms' pre-existing debt and coverage levels. Furthermore, our results indicate that before SFAS 150 managers were willing to bear the higher issuance fees of MRPS and chose to issue these debt-like hybrid securities over cheaper debt. The requirement to classify debt-like hybrids as a liability took away the reporting incentives for issuance and made these securities a less popular financing vehicle.     

Cooperative R&D ventures: Strategic behavior versus transactional efficiency

This paper examines a sample of 48 cooperative R&D ventures announced in the period 1983–1990 to determine their impact on the stock price of the announcing firms. It finds that the venturing firms earn statistically significant positive abnormal returns over periods surrounding the announcement date. These gains are greater than those that result from announcements of increases in expenditures on in-house R&D. The cross-sectional analysis reveals that abnormal returns to the venturing firms are independent of industry concentration, larger in international ventures than in domestic ventures, and equal in cooperative agreements and equity joint ventures. These results support the transactional efficiency perspective of cooperative R&D ventures and suggest that the relaxation of antitrust laws as they apply to cooperative R&D ventures in 1984 is a welfare-improving policy.     

The default contagion of contingent convertible bonds in financial network

This paper investigates the impact of contingent convertible (CoCo) bonds on systemic risk using Eisenberg-Noe’s financial network method, in which the network is linked by debt relationships. As an efficient method for addressing the problem of “too big to fail,” CoCo bonds have received widespread attention, particularly because the trigger for CoCo bonds is a systemic risk event. Thus, the impact of CoCo bonds on systemic risk needs to be addressed. To solve this problem, we adopt default contagion and loss amplification due to network linkage to measure systemic risk, from which we can ascertain the potential impact on it of CoCo bonds. The results show that CoCo bonds enhance the spillover effect of the issuer’s default; meanwhile, sufficient CoCo bonds partly offset the impact of default contagion from other banks. Furthermore, CoCo bonds enhance the amplification effect of loss due to network linkage, but the amplification effect diminishes after the bankruptcy cost is considered. Finally, the numerical test provides some insight into how the issuance of writedown (WD) bonds influences commercial banks in China. Our study not only offers suggestions to the regulators of CoCo bonds but also contributes to related studies.     

Acquiring firms' stock returns: Methods of payment,change in leverage,and management ownership

This study examines the effects of the method of payment, change in leverage, and management equity ownership on the acquiring firm's stock returns around the initial announcement date of the merger. Results indicate that stockholders of mergers financed with stocks suffer significant losses. These losses are larger when management ownership is low and smaller in mergers that resulted in acquiring firm leverage decreases. Stockholders of acquiring firms involved in cash mergers gain significant abnormal returns, provided that acquiring firms increase their leverage and that managerial ownership is high. When management equity ownership is low, leverage has no effect on stock returns. When management ownership is high, mergers which resulted in acquiring firm leverage increases have significant positive effects, and those which resulted in acquiring firm leverage decreases have negative but insignificant effects.     

Financial Pressure and Balance Sheet Adjustment by Firms*

This paper examines the financial policies and balance sheet adjustment of companies. Using a large panel of UK‐listed firms we consider how companies resolve pressures on their balance sheet, estimating models for dividends, new equity issuance and investment. The results indicate that companies resolve balance sheet pressures by each of these means. Financial policies, through dividends and new equity issuance, and real investment decisions, respond to the underlying level of debt and the borrowing cost of servicing that debt. Dividends are estimated to be slow to adjust in the short run.     

自愿披露客户信息影响了债券违约风险吗？

以2010—2021年沪深A股上市公司发行的公司债为样本,实证检验了自愿披露客户信息对债券违约风险的影响。研究发现,自愿披露客户信息产生的额外风险加剧了债券违约风险,这种影响在高专有成本和高融资约束的企业中表现更为显著,但企业发行的绿色债券并未受到影响。机制检验表明,经营风险增加和机构投资者持股降低是自愿披露客户信息影响债券违约风险的重要途径。研究表明,企业需要慎重考虑披露客户信息带来的风险,审慎制定信息披露策略。     

中国省级政府债务风险测度与分析

将财政收入分解为税收收入,土地出让收入以及其他收入。假设三类收入分别服从扩散过程,利用伊藤引理和投资组合理论,建立地方政府债务违约概率测算模型。省级政府债务违约风险的评价结果表明：税收收入和其他收入对地方政府债务违约风险的影响较大,“土地财政”的影响相对较小;偿还债务的期限越长,地方政府债务的违约风险越低;东、中、西部地区的省级地方政府债务的违约风险存在显著差别。西部地区省份的违约风险最高,东部发达地区的违约风险最低。发债试点的8个省市的违约风险普遍较低。四是如果偿还期限为5年,有29个省份的地方政府债务违约风险低于50%。