Takeover Law Enforcement and Acquirer Returns

50 Pages Posted: 30 May 2016 Last revised: 30 Jan 2020

See all articles by Gishan Dissanaike

Gishan Dissanaike

University of Cambridge - Judge Business School

Wolfgang Drobetz

University of Hamburg

Paul P. Momtaz

Syracuse University - Whitman School of Management; Technische Universität München (TUM) - TUM School of Management

Jörg Rocholl

ESMT European School of Management and Technology; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR); European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI)

Date Written: January 28, 2020

Abstract

This paper examines the impact of takeover law enforcement on corporate acquisitions. We use the European Takeover Directive as a natural experiment, which harmonizes takeover law across countries, while leaving its enforcement to the discretion of individual countries. We exploit this heterogeneity in enforcement quality across countries in a difference-in-differences-in-differences model, while employing an overall inductive research approach, following the recommendation in Karpoff and Whittry (2018). We find that acquirer returns increase in countries with changes in takeover law, driven by improved target selection and lower cost of financing. The increase in acquirer returns is lower in weak enforcement jurisdictions, which we identify by developing a novel Takeover Law Enforcement Index (TLEI). The findings show that takeover law can mitigate agency conflicts, but its true value depends on its enforcement. Our results are robust to a number of robustness tests.

Keywords: Mergers and acquisitions, acquirer returns, law and finance, takeover law, law enforcement

JEL Classification: G30, G34, G38, K20, K22

Suggested Citation

Dissanaike, Gishan and Drobetz, Wolfgang and Momtaz, Paul P. and Rocholl, Joerg, Takeover Law Enforcement and Acquirer Returns (January 28, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2786409 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2786409

Gishan Dissanaike

University of Cambridge - Judge Business School ( email )

Trumpington Street
Cambridge, CB2 1AG
United Kingdom
+441 223 339626 (Phone)
+441 223 339701 (Fax)

Wolfgang Drobetz (Contact Author)

University of Hamburg ( email )

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Hamburg, 20148
Germany

Paul P. Momtaz

Syracuse University - Whitman School of Management ( email )

721 University Avenue
Syracuse, NY 13244-2130
United States

Technische Universität München (TUM) - TUM School of Management ( email )

Arcisstr. 21
Munich, 80333
Germany

Joerg Rocholl

ESMT European School of Management and Technology ( email )

Schlossplatz 1
Berlin
Germany

HOME PAGE: http://www.esmt.org/en/159244

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR) ( email )

London
United Kingdom

European Corporate Governance Institute (ECGI) ( email )

c/o the Royal Academies of Belgium
Rue Ducale 1 Hertogsstraat
1000 Brussels
Belgium

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