Apostolos Dasilas

The valuation effects of stock splits in NASDAQ

Purpose – To investigate whether a stock split is still considered a policy that creates value for the underlying company and the rationale behind such action for companies listed on the NASDAQ. Design/methodology/approach - The event study methodology of Strong is employed to examine the announcement effect of stock splits on stock prices. Findings - The results indicate a positive market reaction at the stock split announcement and that the liquidity hypothesis explains well the rationale for the stock splits. Research limitation/implications - The sample is quite small (57 observations) and the examination period is limited to 1999 and 2000. Practical implications - Findings are of particular interest to researchers, practitioners and investors that have an interest in firms listed on NASDAQ. Originality/value - Limited research on the stock price behaviour of firms listed on NASDAQ around stock split announcement date.

Joint effects of interim dividend and earnings announcements in Greece

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate stock price and trading volume reactions to simultaneous interim dividend and earnings announcements by the Greek firms listed on the Athens stock exchange (ASE). Design/methodology/approach - Classical event study methodology was employed to examine the share price and trading volume reaction to interim dividends and earnings announcements. Findings - Results confirm the signaling hypothesis which predicts positive market reaction to the joint dividend and earnings announcements. However, the magnitude of the price reaction initiated by the final dividend announcement seems to be higher than the one by the interim dividend announcement. Research limitations/implications - The observations are not many, although the whole population was included, since there are no data available prior to 1998. Practical implications - The findings are useful to researchers, practitioners and investors who have an interest in firms listed on the ASE for their proper strategic decision making. Originality/value - For the first time, the stock price and trading volume behaviour of firms listed on the ASE around contemporaneous dividend and earnings announcement dates is examined.

The impact of dividend initiations on Greek listed firms’ wealth and volatility across information environments

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of dividend initiations on shareholders’ wealth using a sample of 38 Greek listed firms. Design/methodology/approach - The event study methodology of Brown and Warner was employed to examine the share price reaction to initial dividend announcements across different information environments. Findings - Results show that dividend initiations bring about significant positive abnormal returns in the announcement period. The price response to dividend initiations is inversely associated with the information environment. Finally, the volatility of stock returns is higher in the low information environment group of firms than in the high information environment group of firms. Research limitations/implications - The observations are not many, although the whole population is included, since there are no data available prior to 2000. Practical implications - These findings are useful to researchers, practitioners and investors who have an interest in firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) for their proper strategic decision making. Originality/value - For the first time the stock price behaviour of firms listed on the ASE around dividend initiation announcement dates is examined.

Modelling and forecasting mobile telecommunication services: the case of Greece

In this article we try to model the adoption pattern of mobile telecommunication services into the Greek market for the period 1993 to 2005. Two separate sigmoid curves, the Gompertz and the Logistic, are fitted to the observed number of subscribers by means of nonlinear least squares. Our empirical results reached three conclusions. First, the introduction of the pre-paid mobile telephony in 1997 along with the entry of the third mobile operator in 1998 has boosted the diffusion process in Greece; second, the levelling-off process in the diffusion of mobile phones has already begun; third, the average expected growth rate in new subscribers is less than half percent for the period between 2006 and 2015.

Corporate Governance, Dividend Status, Ownership Structure, and the Performance of Greek Seasoned Equity Offerings

Abstract We examine the short-term and long-term share-price behaviour surrounding the announcement of seasoned equity offerings (SEOs) by firms listed on the Athens Stock Exchange. (ASE) The idiosyncrasies of the ASE make for an interesting investigation of SEO announcements in relation to the effect of corporate governance mechanisms, ownership structure, and dividend-paying status. We examine changes in leverage and systematic risk, as well as the long-term share price and operating performance of those firms involved in a SEO. We report significant share-price appreciations on SEO announcement day. We find a share-price rally before the announcement of SEOs and subsequent share-price reversals. Our results suggest that corporate governance structures, dividend status, and ownership concentration enhance the information content of SEOs. Finally, we report evidence that the long-term operating performance and the capital structure of firms announcing a SEO deteriorates for up to two years following the announcement.

How institutional factors and IFRS affect the value relevance of conservative and non-conservative banks

Purpose - – The purpose of this paper is to explore the value relevance of accounting information before and after mandatory International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) adoption as well as the ensuing relationship between conditional conservatism and value relevance. The authors probe the above relationship by considering a number of institutional parameters, such as the accounting origin of each European country, the degree of differentiation between domestic standards and IFRS, and the level of each country’s enforcement. Design/methodology/approach - – The authors run panel data regressions for banks listed in 15 European countries using both the price and the return model. The authors partition the total sample in conservative and non-conservative banks – based on Khan and Watts (2009) – and in other institutional clusters based on prior highly acclaimed studies. Value relevance is then gauged by the corresponding adjusted Findings - – The results provide evidence that IFRS have reinforced the value relevance for both conservative and non-conservative banks. However, this result alters when controlling for institutional dimensions. Specifically, the value relevance of conservative banks is strengthened when operating in high enforcement, low differences or English-origin environments, while non-conservative banks display better goodness-of-fit in French-origin countries. Research limitations/implications - – A survivorship bias might exist because the authors require three years of data before and three years after IFRS adoption for including a bank in the sample. More importantly, the post-IFRS period coincides with the burst of global financial crisis, which may have severely affected this bias. Furthermore, the C_Score methodology has been developed in a US-oriented context. Therefore, the validity of this measure might be different in countries with other institutional settings, such as week legal enforcement of high level of IFRS divergence. Practical implications - – The authors stress the qualitative significance of conditional conservatism and suggest that accounting standards regulators redefine the qualitative substance of conditional conservatism Originality/value - – Studies that investigate the relationship between value relevance and conditional conservatism in the banking sector are scarce. In the wake of IFRS adoption, the authors signify the role of institutional features as potential determinants in accounting quality changes, as well as in the relationship between value relevance and conditional conservatism.

The Effect of Timeliness and Credit Ratings on the Information Content of Earnings Announcements

Abstract This paper investigates the impact of timeliness and credit ratings on the information content of the earnings announcements of Greek listed firms from 2001 to 2008. Using the classical event study methodology and regression analysis, we find that firms tend to release good news on time and are inclined to delay the release of bad news. We also provide evidence that the level of corporate risk differentiates the information content of earnings according to the credit rating category. Specifically, firms displaying high creditworthiness enjoy positive excess returns on earnings announcement dates. In contrast, firms with low creditworthiness undergo significant share price erosions on earnings announcement days. We also observe a substitution effect between timeliness and credit ratings in relation to the information content of earnings announcements. Specifically, we find that as the credit category of earnings-announcing firms improves, the informational role of timeliness is mitigated.

Measuring the forecasting accuracy of models: evidence from industrialised countries

This paper uses the approach suggested by Akrigay (1989), Tse and Tung (1992) and Dimson and Marsh (1990) to examine the forecasting accuracy of stock price index models for industrialised markets. The focus of this paper is to compare the Mean Absolute Percentage Error (MAPE) of three models, that is, the Random Walk model, the Single Exponential Smoothing model and the Conditional Heteroskedastic model with the MAPE of the benchmark Naive Forecast 1 case. We do not evidence that a single model to provide better forecasting accuracy results compared to other models.

Reverse takeovers: an alternative to the IPO?

We examine the stock price behaviour of 23 Reverse Takeovers (RTs) that took place in the UK. A RT refers to a private company that acquires a publicly traded company in the stock exchange that is generally a cash shell. We examine the effects of the RTs on the wealth of public companys shareholders and we find that the stock price reaction of the public firm around the announcement date does not provide any evidence of systematic pattern. The only pattern observed is the disappearance of negative Abnormal Returns (ARs) for the target after the takeover.

The Market Reaction on Ex-return of Capital Dates During Financially Constraint Periods

The distribution of corporate profits in the form of return of capital has been emerged as an alternative payout policy for the majority of the Greek listed firms since the introduction of a tax on dividends. This study examines the ex-date stock price behavior of those firms opting to distribute return of capital to their shareholders. Using a unique dataset of 149 returns of capital occurring between 2002 and 2015 and employing the classical event-study methodology, I find evidence of stock prices appreciations on ex-return of capital dates. This is in sharp contrast with prior international evidence which demonstrate a stock price drop of less than the amount distributed on ex-dates. Moreover, I document that ex-day abnormal returns are higher for higher-yield stocks with higher transaction costs and higher systematic risk. Finally, in the pre-debt crisis period, the ex-day abnormal returns are almost twice as those after the outbreak of the debt crisis in Greece.