Investment bank reputation and shareholder wealth effects in mergers and acquisitions

This paper investigates the relationship between the reputation of investment banks employed in mergers and acquisitions transactions and the resulting wealth effects. Two hypotheses are tested: the superior deal hypothesis, stating that high reputation advisors suggest deals with higher overall transaction gains; and the bargaining advantage hypothesis, stating that the larger share of transaction benefits is attributed to the party employing a highly reputed advisor. Evidence from 285 European M&A-transactions announced between 1997 and 2002 does not support any of these hypotheses. On average, wealth effects are not significantly different for transactions advised by different advisor tiers.