The Cost of Capital of Cross‐listed Firms

This paper analyses the cost of capital of firms with foreign equity listings. Our purpose is to shed light on the question whether international and domestic asset pricing models yield a different estimate of the cost of capital for cross‐listed stocks. We distinguish between (i) the multifactor ICAPM of Solnik (1979) and Sercu (1980) including both the global market portfolio and exchange rate risk premia and (ii) the single factor domestic CAPM. We test for the significance of the cost of capital differential in a sample of 336 cross‐listed stocks from nine countries in the period 1980–99. Our hypothesis is that the cost of capital differential is substantial for firms with international listings, as these are often large multinationals with a strong international orientation. We find that the asset pricing models yield a significantly different estimate of the cost of capital for only 12% of the cross‐listed companies. The size of the cost of capital differential is around 50 basis points for the US, 80 basis points for the UK and 100 basis points for France.     

A New Application of Sustainable Growth: A Multi‐Dimensional Framework for Evaluating the Long Run Performance of Bank Mergers

Abstract:   We study the mergers of US publicly traded bank holding companies during 1987–2000 and find that the acquiring firm's sustainable growth rate is an important determinant of the cross‐sectional variation in the merged entity's long‐term operating and stock performance. The most economically significant determinants of the merged bank's abnormal stock return performance are the acquiring bank's estimated sustainable growth rate prior to the acquisition, as well as post‐acquisition changes in this growth rate, and the bank's dividend payout ratio. Our findings are robust even after controlling for several potentially confounding factors.     

Firm Characteristics as Cross‐sectional Determinants of Adverse Selection

Abstract:   We analyze the role of firm characteristics in determining the extent of adverse selection, and therefore liquidity, in securities markets. After controlling for the effects of the well‐established determinants of adverse selection, we find evidence that a firm's ratio of plant, property, and equipment to total book assets and its status as a public utility have additional explanatory power. To the extent that these variables are reasonable proxies for the firm's transparency of assets and regulatory environment, we assert these factors contribute to the adverse selection cost of transacting for our sample of NYSE listed S&P 500 firms.     

Target Company Cross‐border Effects in Acquisitions into the UK

We analyse the abnormal returns to target shareholders in cross‐border and domestic acquisitions of UK companies. The cross‐border effect during the bid month is small (0.84%), although cross‐border targets gain significantly more than domestic targets during the months surrounding the bid. We find no evidence for the level of abnormal returns in cross‐border acquisitions to be associated with market access or exchange rate effects, and only limited support for an international diversification effect. However, the cross‐border effect appears to be associated with significant payment effects, and there is no significant residual cross‐border effect once various bid characteristics are controlled for.     

Shareholder Wealth Effects of European Domestic and Cross‐border Takeover Bids

This paper analyses the short‐term wealth effects of large intra‐European takeover bids. We find announcement effects of 9% for the target firms compared to a statistically significant announcement effect of only 0.7% for the bidders. The type of takeover bid has a large impact on the short‐term wealth effects with hostile takeovers triggering substantially larger price reactions than friendly operations. When a UK firm is involved, the abnormal returns are higher than those of bids involving both a Continental European target and bidder. There is strong evidence that the means of payment in an offer has an impact on the share price. A high market‐to‐book ratio of the target leads to a higher bid premium, but triggers a negative price reaction for the bidding firm. We also investigate whether the predominant reason for takeovers is synergies, agency problems or managerial hubris. Our results suggest that synergies are the prime motivation for bids and that targets and bidders share the wealth gains.     

Earnings Conservatism, Litigation and Contracting: The Case of Cross‐Listed Firms

Abstract:   We compare earnings conservatism of UK companies cross‐listed in the US to that of UK companies without a US‐listing. We expect that conservatism will be more pronounced for cross‐listed firms than for firms with a UK listing only, because the cross‐listed firms face a stricter enforcement regime. Furthermore, cross‐listed firms may use a listing on a US exchange to signal high‐quality reporting to investors. Using a matched‐pairs research design, we find that earnings of UK cross‐listed firms are significantly more conservative than earnings of UK firms without a US listing. Moreover, cross listed firms display particularly high levels of conservatism during the early years of their cross‐listing. This indicates that firms use earnings conservatism to commit to highly demanding reporting requirements and in doing so communicate a perception of investor care.     

The Impact on UK Acquirers of Domestic, Cross‐border, Public and Private Acquisitions

Abstract:   We examine the announcement and post‐acquisition share returns of UK acquirers in over 4,000 acquisitions of domestic, cross‐border, public and private targets. Domestic public acquisitions result in negative announcement and post‐acquisition returns, whilst cross‐border public acquisitions result in zero announcement returns and negative post‐acquisition returns. In contrast, both domestic and cross‐border private acquisitions result in positive announcement returns and zero post‐acquisition returns. The main differences between private and public acquisitions are that glamour acquirers underperform in public acquisitions but not in private acquisitions, and that acquirers using noncash methods of payment underperform in domestic public acquisitions but not in domestic private acquisitions. Overall, cross‐border acquisitions result in lower announcement and long run returns than domestic acquisitions. In cross‐border acquisitions, those involving high‐tech firms perform relatively well, as do those with low national cultural differences.     

Analysing Perceived Downside Risk: the Component Value‐at‐Risk Framework

Multinational companies face increasing risks arising from external risk factors, e.g. exchange rates, interest rates and commodity prices, which they have learned to hedge using derivatives. However, despite increasing disclosure requirements, a firm's net risk profile may not be transparent to shareholders. We develop the ‘Component Value‐at‐Risk (VaR)’ framework for companies to identify the multi‐dimensional downside risk profile as perceived by shareholders. This framework allows for decomposing downside risk into components that are attributable to each of the underlying risk factors. The firm can compare this perceived VaR, including its composition and dynamics, to an internal VaR based on net exposures as it is known to the company. Any differences may lead to surprises at times of earnings announcements and thus constitute a litigation threat to the firm. It may reduce this information asymmetry through targeted communication efforts.     

Cross‐sectional Restrictions on the Spot and Forward Term Structures of Interest Rates and Panel Unit Root Tests

In this paper we examine the stationarity of all the rates comprising the USD, GBP, DM and JPY spot and forward term structures. Instead of focussing on short maturity interest rates, as most other papers do, we perform a detailed analysis of the whole range of spot and forward interest rates of the 4 main currencies. We investigate the issue of stationarity within the framework of an equilibrium interest rate model such as Vasicek (1977), that defines the cross-sectional and time series properties that interest rates of various maturities must satisfy. We show that within a one-factor interest rate model, such as Vasicek, all interest rates are restricted to exhibit the same mean reverting behaviour. This restriction allows us to apply more powerful panel unit root tests. This methodology increases considerably the number of observations available and as a result the power of the unit root tests. The higher power of these tests allows us to demonstrate that there does exist mean reversion on the spot and forward US interest rates and the forward DM and GBP interest rates.     

Evaluating the Performance of Ethical and Non‐ethical Funds: A Matched Pair Analysis

Abstract:   This paper studies the performance of 60 European funds from four countries. The paper extends the UK matched pair approach for fund evaluation developed by Mallin et al. (1995) to a European setting. The findings suggest that there is no difference between ethical and non‐ethical funds according to the performance measures employed. Neither type of fund displayed any ability to time the market. Finally, the results indicate that the management fee is a significant explanatory variable for the Jensen measure as Chen et al. (1992) and Grinblatt and Titman (1994) suggested.     

Insider Trading and Pay‐Performance Sensitivity: An Empirical Analysis

Abstract:   We examine whether the sensitivity of pay to performance is associated with the amount of insider trading that managers undertake. Because insider trading profits represent an alternative form of compensation, we expect that firms will consider the compensation component provided by insider trading when designing remuneration contracts. Employing a proxy for insider trading that captures the degree to which managers trade on private information, we find evidence that an increased (a decreased) level of insider trading is associated with a decreased (an increased) pay‐performance sensitivity.     

Board Share‐Ownership and Takeover Performance

Abstract:   We investigate the relation between takeover performance and board share‐ownership in the acquiring company for a sample of 363 UK takeovers completed in the period 1985–96. In investigating this relationship we pay particular attention to the composition of board shareholdings as well as their size. Thus, in addition to the analysis of total board holdings, we analyse the separate impact of CEO shareholdings and of the pattern of non‐executive and executive holdings within the board. In addition to our detailed examination of board holdings we assess the impact of non‐board holdings. Our analysis controls for a number of non‐shareholding constraints on discretionary director behaviour and for a variety of other influences on takeover outcomes including: the means of payment; acquirer size and market to book value; the relative size of the acquirer and the target; the nature of the bid in terms of hostility and industrial direction; and the pre‐takeover performance of the acquiring company. We assess performance in terms of announcement returns, long run share returns and a portfolio of accounting measures. We find evidence that overall board ownership has a strong positive impact on long run share returns and a weak positive impact on operating performance. However, much stronger effects are found when the overall board measure is split into CEO, executive, and non‐executive directors. We find strong evidence of a positive relation between takeover performance and CEO ownership, which holds for both long run returns and operating performance measures. This finding is robust to controlling for other factors that determine takeover performance and holds in a two stage least squares framework that controls for endogeneity effects. Shareholdings of other executive directors, non‐executive directors, and non‐board holdings are found to have no significant effect on takeover performance.     

银监会--金融监管国际化的选择

当前,中国新一届领导集体的经济工作重点已经明确,加强金融安全是重中之重。作为手段,最引人关注的是设立银监会。 央行从一开始的坚决反击到“银监局说”,再到最后的银监会,步步深化,许多背后的东西不得而知。 是设立央行内部相对独立的银监局,还是设立彻底独立的银监会,与证监会、保监会并列存在,或者是干脆把三大监管机构合而为一,主要取决于高层领导的政治决断和对金融混业形势的具体判断。 尽管目前需要独立的银监会,但最终目标是为了获得一个独立的中央银行。一项研究表明。央行独立性越大则通货膨胀率越低,反之则越高。许多国家尤其是那些经历了重大金融事件和金融危机的国家都纷纷采取分离的模式     

European Bank Performance Beyond Country Borders: What Really Matters?

The paper analyzes bank performance in the context of the integrated EuropeanUnion market and its member countries. First, the paper investigates the technicalefficiency of banks in each country sample using a Data Envelopment Analysis(DEA) model incorporating only banking variables. Then, a second DEA modelis defined incorporating environmental factors together with banking variables inorder to standardize the country-specific environmental conditions. Based on thesemodels, the paper systematically analyzes the efficiency position for each of theEuropean banking industry if average banks decide to operate in any other country.The results indicate that adverse (advantageous) environmental conditions are apositive (negative) factor for the home banking industry and being technicallyefficient appears to be a significant deterrence to foreign competition.     

Performance and Policy of Foundation‐owned Firms in Germany

This paper compares performance and policy of foundation‐owned firms and of listed corporations in Germany. Foundations have no owners so that there exist no individuals with financial ownership claims on firms which are wholly owned by foundations. This suggests weaker outside control of foundation‐owned firms implying lower profitability. The empirical findings show a slightly better performance of foundation‐owned firms compared to corporations. Foundation‐owned firms display higher labour intensity, lower labour productivity, and lower salary levels. This policy promotes job security without endangering the viability of foundation‐owned firms.     

论我国的金融监管体制

我国现行的分业金融监管体制的不足之处主要表现在：监管重叠和监管缺位同时存在；监管机构膨胀加剧且监管机构之间协调性较差；金融业务各部门发展失衡；金融风险隐患严重。因此，有必要对现行的金融监管体制进行改革，尽早建立一种统一的金融监管体制，推动我国金融市场的健康发展。     

Investor Sentiment and the Closed‐end Fund Puzzle: Out‐of‐sample Evidence

In this paper we examine the proposition that small investor sentiment, measured by the change in the discount/premium on closed‐end funds, is an important factor in stock returns. We conduct an out‐of‐sample test of the investor sentiment hypothesis in a market environment that is more likely to be prone to investor sentiment than the USA. We fail to provide supporting evidence for the claim of Lee et al. (1991) that investor sentiment affects the risk of common stocks. Consistent with Elton et al. (1998) , who show that investor sentiment does not enter the return generating process, our tests do not detect investor sentiment in a capital market that is more susceptible to small investor sentiment. Our results provide additional support against the claim that investor sentiment represents an independent and systematic asset pricing risk.     

荷兰合作银行:从小国走出的大银行

荷兰合作银行建立于1864年,其总资产和一级资本在全球大银行中均排 名30位以内,是世界上最有影响力的大银行之一,是全球惟一的一家没 有政府参股的AAA级私人银行,也是全球最安全银行之一。