FT coverage and UK target price run-ups

We focus on the market expectation hypothesis to explain the increase in share prices and trading volume of target firms before their merger announcements that have conventionally been attributed to either insider trading or market expectation. We use Financial Times (FT) coverage as a proxy of merger expectation and search for relevant articles for 783 UK target firms between 1998 and 2010. We identify a total of 1049 rumour articles and find that the FT market expectation proxy explains a small percentage of the target price run-ups. Results are strong during the sample period, even though the magnitude for both returns and trading volume tends to decrease within recent years. There is also a strong contemporaneous relation between abnormal returns and trading volume. Unexplained increases in target prices and trading volume may be attributed to insider trading.     

Cross-border acquisitions vs. Greenfield investment: A comparative performance analysis in Greece

This paper compares cross-border acquisition with Greenfield foreign direct investment (FDI). It investigates the impact of these two FDI modes on the long-term performance of foreign subsidiaries. By focusing on the performance of the foreign affiliate, it departs from the rich survival literature and for the first time explores the precise performance of these ventures over a longer period of time. In particular, by drawing on the theory of industrial organization (IO), we empirically examine to which extent the two different forms of market entry help to explain the development of leading positions of affiliates in the host country. Our field research is based on a wide original sample of 179 manufacturing subsidiaries of foreign transnational corporations (TNCs) located in Greece. The econometric results indicate that acquisitions exhibit specific signs of excellence in terms of market share, firm size, capital intensity and product differentiation. We ascertain that at least as far as market share and capital intensity are concerned, the superiority of the cross-border acquisitions rests on both the fact that TNCs are eager to acquire the most efficient firms in the host country, and actively engage in assisting these firms in their up-grading procedures.     

How Much Is Too Much: Are Merger Premiums Too High?

Is it too much to pay target firm shareholders a 50% premium on top of market price? Or is it too much to pay a 100% premium when pursuing mergers and acquisitions? How much is too much? In this paper, we examine how the extent of merger premiums paid impacts both the long‐run and announcement period stock returns of acquiring firms. We find no evidence that acquirers paying high premiums underperform those paying relatively low premiums in three years following mergers, and the result is robust after controlling for a variety of firm and deal characteristics. Short term cumulative abnormal returns are moreover positively correlated to the level of the premium paid by acquirers. Our evidence therefore suggests that high merger premiums paid are unlikely to be responsible for acquirers' long‐run post merger underperformance.     

Corporate debt issues and interest rate risk management: Hedging or market timing?

Apart from the obvious reasons for raising capital, a firm can hedge its interest rate exposure by issuing debt, the value of which moves in an opposite direction from the value of its assets as interest rate varies. We examine whether firms in the UK market make full use of debt issuances for hedging purposes or if they have other considerations. Our evidence shows that firms’ choices of debt issues are primarily driven by debt market conditions in an effort to lower their costs of capital rather than managing their firm-specific interest rate exposures. This suggests that market timing, as opposed to hedging, is the primary motivation behind corporate debt issuances.     

Company Characteristics and Environmental Policy

This paper investigates the relationship between various firm characteristics and environmental disclosures. Our findings evidence that firms with higher environmental ratings present a statistically significant larger size, belong to more environmentally sensitive industries as compared with firms with lower environmental ratings and disclose environmental information according to GRI guidelines. However, neither profitability nor listing status seems to explain differences in environmental disclosure practices between Greek companies. The most influential variable for explaining firms' variation in environmental ratings is size, followed by GRI reporting and industry membership. This study adds to the international research on environmental disclosure by providing empirical data from a country, Greece, where empirical evidence is still relatively unknown, extending the scope of the current understanding of the environmental reporting practices. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Customer-driven philosophy in the banking industry under different ownership status: the case of Greece

Relationship banking (RB) philosophy has become a topic of increasing importance in strategic marketing management. RB concerns inter alia the applying of customer-driven strategies using advanced information technology. This study investigates RB in the Greek banking industry overall and also under different ownership status (privately owned vs. stated-controlled vs. foreign banks). Based on a wide field of research during the period 2005–2006, indeed, we find that banks in Greece apply the philosophy of RB; however, privately owned and foreign banks implement RB strategies more systematically and effectively in comparison with state-controlled banks. The usefulness of our results is twofold: they satisfactorily justify the considerable growth of the private banking sector in the Greek economy and significantly enrich the service-profit chain of this specific industry.     

FUTURES MARKET EFFICIENCY,THE UNBIASEDNESS HYPOTHESIS AND VARIANCE-BOUNDS TESTS: THE CASE OF THE FTSE-100 FUTURES CONTRACT*

The efficiency of futures markets is critical to their price discovery role. This paper investigates the joint hypothesis of market efficiency and unbiasedness of futures prices for the FTSE-100 stock index futures contract. Unlike previous studies, it tests for both long-run and short-run efficiency using cointegration and error correction models. Variance-bounds tests are developed and utilized for examining the question of efficiency. Results show that the market is efficient and provides an unbiased estimate of future spot prices for one and two months away from expiration. However, for three and more months away from expiration this is not the case, which has implications for the users of this market.     

Local Public Corruption and Bank Lending Activity in the United States

Using a conviction-based measure, we find that local (state-level) public corruption exerts a negative effect on the lending activity of US banks. Our baseline estimations show that the difference in public corruption between, for example, Alabama, where corruption is high, and Minnesota, where corruption is low, implies that banks headquartered in the former state grant 0.55% less credit (or $3.52 million for the average bank) ceteris paribus. Using proxies for relationship lending and monitoring, we also find that these bank characteristics weaken the negative effect of public corruption on lending. These results are robust to tests that address endogeneity, to the use of perception-based measures of corruption, and after controlling for credit demand conditions. In further analysis, we show that these effects are more evident for smaller banks and banks operating in a single state. These findings provide evidence that public corruption could facilitate information asymmetry in the lending market and, thus, could hinder local development by reducing bank credit.

     

How ICT affects economic growth in the Euro area during the economic crisis

NETNOMICS: Economic Research and Electronic Networking - The financial and economic crisis in Europe highlighted issues related to the competitiveness of member states, as well as the importance of...