Amrita Nain

Does Insider Trading Regulation Deter Private Information Trading? International Evidence

Using a sample of 2189 firms from 21 countries we find that, on average, stricter insider trading regulations reduce private information trading. However, for firms with high agency costs, insider trading restrictions are less effective in deterring private information trading. We suggest that controlling shareholders who are banned from trading may resort to covert expropriation of firm resources thereby reducing transparency and increasing the returns to private information trading. Consistent with this, we find that firms with higher agency costs located in countries with stricter insider trading laws have more opaque earnings and are valued lower.

It Pays to Follow the Leader: Acquiring Targets Picked by Private Equity

This paper examines the impact of financial sponsor competition on corporate buyers. We find that corporate acquirers who purchase targets that financial buyers also bid on outperform corporate acquirers who buy targets bid on by corporate firms only. Deal characteristics, acquirer abilities, and observable target characteristics cannot explain this difference in returns. Corporate acquirers have higher returns when they follow a first bid by a financial buyer rather than a first bid by another corporate buyer. The results suggest that financial bidders identify targets with high potential for value improvement and winning corporate bidders are competent in exploiting this potential.

Mutual fund skill and the performance of corporate acquirers

We show that the commonly observed correlation between institutional investor ownership and the success of mergers is partly driven by active stock picking. Several mutual fund stock selection skill measures strongly predict the post-merger performance of corporate acquirers even after controlling for possible shareholder monitoring. These findings are stronger for funds with characteristics more indicative of active stock picking. Moreover, firms held by funds with higher stock selection skills are more likely to subsequently become acquirers, suggesting that the mutual fund skill set includes the ability to identify acquirers with value-enhancing acquisition opportunities.

The Product Market Impact of Minority Stake Acquisitions

We show that partial equity ownership between rival firms has a significant impact on industry competition. Industry-level tests indicate that acquisitions of a minority stake in competing firms’ equity are followed by higher output prices and higher price-cost margins, particularly in industries with high barriers to entry. Stock price reactions of non-participating competitors and of customer firms reflect the increase in industry prices and profit margins. Announcement returns of competitors of the acquirer and target are positive while announcement returns of customer firms are negative. Moreover, the positive (negative) stock-price reaction of competitors (customers) is more pronounced when the acquirer and target are larger firms with a greater market share. These results indicate that equity ownership of rival firms reduces industry competition.