IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/finsta/v67y2023ics1572308923000591.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Hastily announced: Mergers and acquisitions with pledging shareholders

Author

Listed:
  • Hou, Xipei
  • Shen, Yinjie(Victor)
  • Xing, Jing
  • Zhou, Fuzhao

Abstract

This study examines how controlling shareholders’ pledging behavior influences firms’ acquisition decisions. Employing a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2018, we find that firms with pledging controlling shareholders are more likely to announce merger and acquisition (M&A) deals than firms with non-pledging shareholders. The positive relationship between share pledging and M&A announcements is more pronounced when the margin call pressure is higher. We show that the link between share pledging and M&As is best explained by the controlling shareholders’ fear of losing control, and is unlikely due to shareholder expropriation or optimism. Further analyses indicate that pledge-related acquisitions are associated with a lower success rate, longer trading suspension periods, and smaller (yet positive) market returns.

Suggested Citation

  • Hou, Xipei & Shen, Yinjie(Victor) & Xing, Jing & Zhou, Fuzhao, 2023. "Hastily announced: Mergers and acquisitions with pledging shareholders," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:finsta:v:67:y:2023:i:c:s1572308923000591
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jfs.2023.101159
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1572308923000591
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jfs.2023.101159?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Field, Laura Casares & Mkrtchyan, Anahit, 2017. "The effect of director experience on acquisition performance," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 123(3), pages 488-511.
    2. Shen, Yinjie (Victor) & Wang, Wei & Zhou, Fuzhao, 2021. "Insider pledging in the U.S," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    3. Ulrike Malmendier & Geoffrey Tate, 2005. "CEO Overconfidence and Corporate Investment," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 60(6), pages 2661-2700, December.
    4. Ferris, Stephen P. & Jayaraman, Narayanan & Sabherwal, Sanjiv, 2013. "CEO Overconfidence and International Merger and Acquisition Activity," Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Cambridge University Press, vol. 48(1), pages 137-164, February.
    5. Shleifer, Andrei & Vishny, Robert W, 1997. "A Survey of Corporate Governance," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 52(2), pages 737-783, June.
    6. Deqiu Chen & Huasheng Gao & Yujing Ma, 2021. "Human Capital-Driven Acquisition: Evidence from the Inevitable Disclosure Doctrine," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 67(8), pages 4643-4664, August.
    7. Peter‐Jan Engelen & Rezaul Kabir, 2006. "Empirical Evidence on the Role of Trading Suspensions in Disseminating New Information to the Capital Market," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7‐8), pages 1142-1167, September.
    8. Alexander Dyck & Luigi Zingales, 2004. "Private Benefits of Control: An International Comparison," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 59(2), pages 537-600, April.
    9. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2019. "Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 650-699.
    10. Isakov, Dušan & Weisskopf, Jean-Philippe, 2014. "Are founding families special blockholders? An investigation of controlling shareholder influence on firm performance," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 1-16.
    11. Terza, Joseph V. & Basu, Anirban & Rathouz, Paul J., 2008. "Two-stage residual inclusion estimation: Addressing endogeneity in health econometric modeling," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 531-543, May.
    12. Ying Dou & Ronald W Masulis & Jason Zein, 2019. "Shareholder Wealth Consequences of Insider Pledging of Company Stock as Collateral for Personal Loans," The Review of Financial Studies, Society for Financial Studies, vol. 32(12), pages 4810-4854.
    13. Borenstein, Severin, 1990. "Airline Mergers, Airport Dominance, and Market Power," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(2), pages 400-404, May.
    14. Malmendier, Ulrike & Tate, Geoffrey, 2008. "Who makes acquisitions? CEO overconfidence and the market's reaction," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 89(1), pages 20-43, July.
    15. Admati, Anat R & Pfleiderer, Paul & Zechner, Josef, 1994. "Large Shareholder Activism, Risk Sharing, and Financial Market Equilibrium," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 102(6), pages 1097-1130, December.
    16. Jingjing Xu & Yan Zhang & Yizhe Xie, 2020. "Controlling Shareholder’s Share Pledging and Firm’s Auditor Choice," Emerging Markets Finance and Trade, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 56(4), pages 750-770, March.
    17. Huang, Qianqian & Jiang, Feng & Lie, Erik & Yang, Ke, 2014. "The role of investment banker directors in M&A," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 112(2), pages 269-286.
    18. Mark Bagnoli & Barton L. Lipman, 1996. "Stock Price Manipulation Through Takeover Bids," RAND Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 27(1), pages 124-147, Spring.
    19. Basu, Nilanjan & Dimitrova, Lora & Paeglis, Imants, 2009. "Family control and dilution in mergers," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 33(5), pages 829-841, May.
    20. Betsey Stevenson, 2010. "Beyond the Classroom: Using Title IX to Measure the Return to High School Sports," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 92(2), pages 284-301, May.
    21. Rafael La Porta & Florencio Lopez‐De‐Silanes & Andrei Shleifer, 1999. "Corporate Ownership Around the World," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 54(2), pages 471-517, April.
    22. Li, Michelle & Liu, Chelsea & Scott, Tom, 2019. "Share pledges and firm value," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 192-205.
    23. Birger Wernerfelt, 1984. "A resource‐based view of the firm," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 171-180, April.
    24. Peter‐Jan Engelen & Rezaul Kabir, 2006. "Empirical Evidence on the Role of Trading Suspensions in Disseminating New Information to the Capital Market," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(7‐8), pages 1142-1167, September.
    25. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding-Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1327, June.
    26. Claessens, Stijn & Djankov, Simeon & Lang, Larry H. P., 2000. "The separation of ownership and control in East Asian Corporations," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 58(1-2), pages 81-112.
    27. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2015. "Control Function Methods in Applied Econometrics," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 50(2), pages 420-445.
    28. Ronald Anderson & Michael Puleo, 2020. "Insider Share-Pledging and Equity Risk," Journal of Financial Services Research, Springer;Western Finance Association, vol. 58(1), pages 1-25, August.
    29. Yang, Junhong & Guariglia, Alessandra & Guo, Jie (Michael), 2019. "To what extent does corporate liquidity affect M&A decisions, method of payment and performance? Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 128-152.
    30. Chan, Konan & Chen, Hung-Kun & Hu, Shing-yang & Liu, Yu-Jane, 2018. "Share pledges and margin call pressure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 96-117.
    31. Ng, Lilian & Wu, Fei, 2007. "The trading behavior of institutions and individuals in Chinese equity markets," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 31(9), pages 2695-2710, September.
    32. Bradley, Michael & Desai, Anand & Kim, E. Han, 1988. "Synergistic gains from corporate acquisitions and their division between the stockholders of target and acquiring firms," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 3-40, May.
    33. Kim, E Han & Singal, Vijay, 1993. "Mergers and Market Power: Evidence from the Airline Industry," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 83(3), pages 549-569, June.
    34. Pang, Caiji & Wang, Ying, 2020. "Stock pledge, risk of losing control and corporate innovation," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    35. Ouyang, Caiyue & Xiong, Jiacai & Fan, Lyu, 2019. "Do insiders share pledging affect executive pay-for-performance sensitivity?," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 226-239.
    36. Lanfeng Kao & Jeng‐Ren Chiou & Anlin Chen, 2004. "The Agency Problems, Firm Performance and Monitoring Mechanisms: the evidence from collateralised shares in Taiwan," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 389-402, July.
    37. Eun, Cheol S. & Kolodny, Richard & Scheraga, Carl, 1996. "Cross-border acquisitions and shareholder wealth: Tests of the synergy and internalization hypotheses," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 20(9), pages 1559-1582, November.
    38. Paul Hribar & Holly Yang, 2016. "CEO Overconfidence and Management Forecasting," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 33(1), pages 204-227, March.
    39. Emma L. Black & Angelos J. Doukas & Xiaofei Xing & Jie (Michael) Guo, 2015. "Gains to Chinese Bidder Firms: Domestic vs. Foreign Acquisitions," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 21(5), pages 905-935, November.
    40. Tsun‐Siou Lee & Yin‐Hua Yeh, 2004. "Corporate Governance and Financial Distress: evidence from Taiwan," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 12(3), pages 378-388, July.
    41. Brown, Stephen J. & Warner, Jerold B., 1985. "Using daily stock returns : The case of event studies," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 14(1), pages 3-31, March.
    42. Kenneth R. Ahern & Amy K. Dittmar, 2012. "The Changing of the Boards: The Impact on Firm Valuation of Mandated Female Board Representation," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 127(1), pages 137-197.
    43. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2019. "Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions," Other publications TiSEM 9baa3ffc-67cb-4647-9da5-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    44. Barber, Brad M. & Lyon, John D., 1996. "Detecting abnormal operating performance: The empirical power and specification of test statistics," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 359-399, July.
    45. Alan J. Auerbach & David Reishus, 1987. "The Impact of Taxation on Mergers and Acquisitions," NBER Chapters, in: Mergers and Acquisitions, pages 69-86, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    46. Chi, Jing & Sun, Qian & Young, Martin, 2011. "Performance and characteristics of acquiring firms in the Chinese stock markets," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 152-170, June.
    47. Li, Wanli & Zhou, Jingting & Yan, Ziqiao & Zhang, He, 2020. "Controlling shareholder share pledging and firm cash dividends," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    48. Kee‐Hong Bae & Jun‐Koo Kang & Jin‐Mo Kim, 2002. "Tunneling or Value Added? Evidence from Mergers by Korean Business Groups," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 57(6), pages 2695-2740, December.
    49. Ronald C. Anderson & David M. Reeb, 2003. "Founding‐Family Ownership and Firm Performance: Evidence from the S&P 500," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 58(3), pages 1301-1328, June.
    50. Zhu, Bing & Xia, Xiaoxue & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2021. "One way out of the share pledging quagmire: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    51. Wang, Yu-Chun & Chou, Robin K., 2018. "The impact of share pledging regulations on stock trading and firm valuation," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 1-13.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhu, Bing & Xia, Xiaoxue & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2021. "One way out of the share pledging quagmire: Evidence from mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 71(C).
    2. Jiang, Fuxiu & Xia, Xiaoxue & Zheng, Xiaojia, 2021. "Does controlling shareholders' share pledging raise suppliers' eyebrows?," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 66(C).
    3. Wang, Xiaoqiong & Zhen, Hongxian & Zhu, Feifei, 2023. "Voting with their feet: Controlling shareholders' share pledging and other major shareholders' strategic response," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Shen, Haomin & Cheng, Xiaoke & Ouyang, Caiyue & Li, Ya & Chan, Kam C., 2022. "Does share pledging affect firms' use of derivatives? Evidence from China," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C).
    5. Li, Wanli & Zhou, Jingting & Yan, Ziqiao & Zhang, He, 2020. "Controlling shareholder share pledging and firm cash dividends," Emerging Markets Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C).
    6. He, Mingfeng & Huang, Dengshi & Zhou, Jianan, 2023. "The impacts of share pledging on firm investment timing and valuation," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 87(C).
    7. Hu, Jun & Long, Wenbin & Luo, Le & Peng, Yuanhuai, 2021. "Share pledging and optimism in analyst earnings forecasts: Evidence from China," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 132(C).
    8. Zhou, Jingting & Li, Wanli & Yan, Ziqiao & Lyu, Huaili, 2021. "Controlling shareholder share pledging and stock price crash risk: Evidence from China," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 77(C).
    9. Renneboog, Luc & Vansteenkiste, Cara, 2019. "Failure and success in mergers and acquisitions," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 650-699.
    10. Bouzgarrou, Houssam & Navatte, Patrick, 2013. "Ownership structure and acquirers performance: Family vs. non-family firms," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 27(C), pages 123-134.
    11. Chang, Jeffery (Jinfan) & Meng, Qingbin & Ni, Xiaoran, 2022. "A tale of riskiness: The real effects of share pledging on the Chinese stock market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 73(C).
    12. Liu, Wei & Tian, Gary Gang, 2022. "Controlling shareholder share pledging and the cost of equity capital: Evidence from China," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(6).
    13. Zijian Cheng & Zhangxin (Frank) Liu & Yupu Sun, 2021. "Share pledging and financial constraints in China," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(3), pages 4147-4189, September.
    14. Xiao, MingFang & Cao, June & Chiang, Yao-Min, 2022. "Kiss the baby for the nurse's sake? - Guaranteeing employees' stock purchase against loss program," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    15. Shi, Yang & Li, Jiachen & Liu, Ruiming, 2023. "Financing constraints and share pledges: Evidence from the share pledge reform in China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    16. Chan, Konan & Chen, Hung-Kun & Hu, Shing-yang & Liu, Yu-Jane, 2018. "Share pledges and margin call pressure," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 96-117.
    17. Sumon Kumar Bhaumik & Andros Gregoriou, 2010. "‘Family’ Ownership, Tunnelling And Earnings Management: A Review Of The Literature," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 705-730, September.
    18. Guo, Kai & Ke, Bin & Tang, Song, 2023. "Private firms' financial constraints and share pledging by controlling shareholders of publicly listed firms: Evidence from China," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 80(C).
    19. Taylan Mavruk & Conny Overland & Stefan Sjögren, 2020. "Keeping it real or keeping it simple? Ownership concentration measures compared," European Financial Management, European Financial Management Association, vol. 26(4), pages 958-1005, September.
    20. repec:dau:papers:123456789/5922 is not listed on IDEAS
    21. Martynova, M., 2006. "The market for corporate control and corporate governance regulation in Europe," Other publications TiSEM 8651e281-4914-41f2-ac14-1, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:finsta:v:67:y:2023:i:c:s1572308923000591. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jfstabil .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.