We examine the choice between accelerated share repurchase (ASR) and open market repurchase (OMR) as repurchase mechanisms between 2004 and 2007. For a sample of ASRs and OMRs that actually buy shares in the announcement quarter, we find that ASR firms have lower market-to-book ratios, less...

This paper examines the extent to which the profit versus loss heuristic directly affects debt issuance decisions. We hypothesize that reporting a loss and its use as a heuristic rather than firms’ economic fundamentals has an impact both on the decision to raise external debt finance and on...

We investigate the price performance of initial public offerings (IPOs) of formerly state-owned companies in Australia. On average, privatised IPOs in Australia are underpriced by about 11%, which is not significantly different from the magnitude of underpricing of the privately-owned IPOs and...

This study evaluates the economics of the choice of form of payout initiation mechanism adopted by IPO firms. Our results suggest that IPO firms demonstrate a preference for repurchases over dividends as the specific form of payout initiation mechanism. We however, find that while the market...

While shell companies are convenient vehicles for small private firms to go public via a reverse merger, they are also often mentioned in the popular press in conjunction with stock price manipulation. Recently the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has imposed stricter rules on these...

We examine the relationship between value, ownership, and governance structures for a set of acquisitions by Australian companies over the period of 1994–2001. We find that the propensity to diversify increases with the equity ownership of firms' directors, whereas the composition of the...