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Limited attention, share repurchases, and takeover risk

Ji-Chai Lin, Clifford P. Stephens and YiLin Wu

Journal of Banking & Finance, 2014, vol. 42, issue C, 283-301

Abstract: We hypothesize that announcing open market share repurchases (OMRs) to counter negative valuation shocks reveals repurchasing firms’ lost growth opportunities or underperforming assets to potential bidders, making them more likely to become takeover targets. This also leads their investors to face higher takeover risk, a systematic risk associated with economic fundamentals that drive takeover waves, as proposed by Cremers et al. (2009). Indeed, we find that repurchasing firms tend to face higher takeover probability in the first few years following their OMR announcements, and that the increase in takeover risk can largely explain their post-announcement long-run abnormal returns documented in the literature. The increase in takeover risk is larger for smaller firms, firms with poorer pre-announcement stock performance, and those attracting more attention of market participants. Our results suggest that OMRs, which are used by many firms to counter undervaluation, could make the firms more sensitive to takeover waves and raise their cost of equity capital.

Keywords: Share buybacks; Limited attention; Takeover risk; Long-run performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G14 G32 G34 G35 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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:42:y:2014:i:c:p:283-301

DOI: 10.1016/j.jbankfin.2014.02.004

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