Essays on ownership and control: Shareholder wealth effects in takeovers and the measurement of ownership concentration

Abstract

The dissertation consists of three essays, two on takeovers and one on the measurement of ownership concentration.

Cross-border acquisitions and insider ownership studies whether there is a cross-border effect in returns to the bidding firms’ shareholders when acquiring Swedish listed firms; i.e. if foreign bidders earn less than domestic bidders. We find that foreign bidders on average earn less than domestic bidders, but once we control for insider ownership this effect disappears. Foreign bidders do not receive lower returns, but bidders without prior ownership stakes do.

Foreign bidders, public bidders and gains to target shareholders analyzes whether there is a difference in returns to the shareholders of the target firms when a foreign bidder or a public bidder acquires it. After controlling for confounding variables it is found that there is no statistically significant difference between when bidders are domestic or foreign, but that there is a significant difference in target returns between public bidders and private bidders.

Keeping it real or keeping it simple? Ownership concentration measures compared is an empirical analysis of several ownership concentration measures that are used in previous empirical studies. It is suggested that ownership concentration measures capture different aspects of ownership and that these measures are not substitutes in general.