We analyse the motives and market valuation of various forms of stock market delisting. We show that firms that delist voluntarily are likely to have come to the market to rebalance their leverage rather than to finance their growth opportunities. During their public life, their leverage...

I analyze the tax systems and tax reforms in Germany and the U.K. and test the hypothesis that ex–day returns are related to each country’s tax differential between dividends and capital gains. The results indicate that in the U.K., where this tax differential is high and short–term...

We analyse the reasons why companies issue units when they raise additional capital. In contrast to previous evidence, our results show that units are not offered to mitigate the agency conflicts or to signal security mispricing as they are predominantly issued during cold periods, in public...

We analyse the reasons why companies issue units when they raise additional capital. In contrast to previous evidence, our results show that units are not offered to mitigate the agency conflicts or to signal security mispricing as they are predominantly issued during cold periods, in public...

We argue that insiders' decisions to trade in short windows before news announcements are likely to result from a trade-off between the incentives to capitalize on the foreknowledge of the disclosure and the risk of regulatory scrutiny and lost reputation. We provide evidence that insider buying...

We analyse the strategies undertaken by financially-distressed companies and test the hypothesis that the probability of corporate recovery is positively related to the adoption of cash based strategies. We show that, companies that recover from financial distress are focused, diligent and adopt...

We find significant impact of insider trading activity on the long-run performance of IPOs. We show that, at the aggregate, insiders are net sellers in IPOs that generate positive long-run returns, while they are net buyers in those that underperform. When we analyse individual trades, we find...

We test a number of hypotheses to assess changes in director ownership during lockup periods. We find that these transactions are additional signalling devices. Our results also imply that they are contractual arrangements between directors and underwriters, as directors increase their holdings...

We use merger-induced changes to shareholder structure to test for active catering to dividend clienteles. Following mergers, acquirers adjust their dividend payout toward that of the target, but only when they inherit target shareholders through stock swaps. This adjustment is stronger when...

We assess the extent to which remotely-located firms are likely to discretionarily accumulate cash rather than distribute it to shareholders. We consider that these firms are less subject to shareholder scrutiny and, thus, will have high agency conflicts as the distance will facilitate the...