Distance Learning Students Celebrate at Graduation

The ICMA Centre is proud to announce a new partnership with the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT).

"Institutional Cross-ownership and Corporate Strategy: The Case of Mergers and Acquisitions" by Professor Chris Brooks, Dr Yeqin Zeng, and PhD Zhong Chen has been awarded Best Corporate Finance Paper at the 2016 Southern Finance Association annual conference. About the paper: The paper provides new evidence on the important role of institutional investors in affecting corporate strategy. We study institutional investors who hold stocks of both acquirers and targets before the announcements of mergers and acquisitions (M&As). The existence of these institutional cross-owners not only increases the probability of two firms merging, but also affects the outcomes of M&As. Institutional cross-ownership reduces target firm prices, lowers completion probabilities of deals with negative acquirer announcement returns, and increases the use of stock payment in M&A transactions. Furthermore, deals with high institutional cross-ownership have lower transaction costs and disclose more transparent financial statement information.

Capitalism is high on the political agenda. Like coffee it seems to come in a bewildering number of varieties. Some politicians like it "responsible" others "moral" and still others "popular". While some argue that it is time for shareholders to wield real power, others feel that that certain shareholders, notably hedge funds should sit on their hands, at least if they have bought shares after a takeover has been announced. Out on the streets the tents of the "occupy" protectors may be under threat but many are sympathetic to the view that bankers and board members have been rewarded for taking too many risks with other people's money.