The role of investment bankers in M&As: New evidence on Acquirers’ financial conditions

Guo, Jie (Michael), Yichen Li, Changyun Wang () and Xiaofei Xing

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2020, vol. 119, issue C

Abstract: This paper investigates whether top-tier M&A investment bankers (financial advisors) create value for acquirers with different financial conditions in both the short and long term via analyzing 3420 US deals during 1990–2012. In this paper, deals are divided into three groups based on acquirer financial constraints – acquisitions by constrained, neutral and unconstrained firms. We find that the effects of top-tier bankers are dependent on acquirer financial conditions. Specifically, top-tier advisors improve performance for constrained acquirers rather than neutral, and unconstrained acquirers. Our results show that top-tier investment bankers improve constrained acquirers’ short- (5 days) and long-term (36 months) performance by 1.45% and 24.27% respectively, after controlling for firm, deal and market characteristics. For deals with investment banker involvement, constrained acquirers advised by top-tier advisors have the lowest deal completion rate, and pay the lowest bid premiums; while unconstrained acquirers that retain top-tier investment bankers have the highest deal completion rate, and pay relatively high bid premiums. Our findings imply that constrained acquirers tend to retain top-tier investment bankers to gain superior synergy, while unconstrained acquirers appear to retain top-tier investment bankers to ensure the deal completion.

Keywords: Mergers and acquisitions; Investment banker; Financial constraint; Firm performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G14 G34 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:jbfina:v:119:y:2020:i:c:s0378426618300347

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2018.02.004

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