It Pays For Companies To Leave Russia

21 Pages Posted: 25 May 2022 Last revised: 31 May 2022

See all articles by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld

Yale School of Management

Steven Tian

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute

Steven Zaslavsky

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute

Yash Bhansali

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute

Ryan Vakil

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute

Date Written: May 18, 2022

Abstract

In this working paper, we seek to explore the response within financial markets, across asset classes, to the decisions companies are making to either exit or remain in Russia, building on our earlier analysis in The Washington Post.

Using our proprietary dataset tracking 1,200 companies, we find that equity markets are actually rewarding companies for leaving Russia while punishing those that remain behind, with divergent stock performance generally corresponding with the degree of Russian exit - which holds true across regions, sectors, and company sizes. Despite disproportionate focus on asset write-downs and lost revenue from Russia, we demonstrate that the shareholder wealth created through equity gains have already far surpassed the cost of one-time impairments for companies that have written down the value of their Russian assets. Furthermore, we find the pattern of financial markets rewarding companies for exiting Russia is not confined to only public equity markets through our analysis of credit and derivative markets, in particular longer maturity corporate debt, credit spreads, and related credit default swap pricing, showing that the investor response has been incredibly broad-based across financial markets.

Our sweeping analysis of global capital flows demonstrates the importance investors attribute to the decision to withdraw from Russia – and that investors believe the global reputational risk incurred by remaining in Russia at a time when nearly 1,000 major global corporations have exited far outweigh the costs of leaving. Clearly, doing well has not been antithetical to doing good – at least when it comes to withdrawing from Russia.

Suggested Citation

Sonnenfeld, Jeffrey and Tian, Steven and Zaslavsky, Steven and Bhansali, Yash and Vakil, Ryan, It Pays For Companies To Leave Russia (May 18, 2022). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4112885 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4112885

Jeffrey Sonnenfeld

Yale School of Management ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Steven Tian (Contact Author)

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Steven Zaslavsky

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Yash Bhansali

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Ryan Vakil

Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute ( email )

493 College St
New Haven, CT CT 06520
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
2,493
Abstract Views
14,291
Rank
11,875
PlumX Metrics