The notion of diffuse stock ownership and its inherent problems is well entrenched in financial research. It has already been addressed by early economists such as Smith (1776) and Berle and Means (1932).The latter state: “['] the dissolution of the old atom of ownership into its parts, control and beneficial ownership ['] destroys the very foundation on which the economic order of the past centuries has rested.”
Many theoretical analyses argue that the involvement of large shareholders in monitoring or control activities has the potential to limit agency problems (Shleifer and Vishny (1986), Maug (1998), and Noe (2002)). Empirical support for this argument has been provided by a number of studies (e.g. Agrawal and Mandelker (1990), Hartzell and Starks (2003), Holderness (2003)). Results are, however, still ambiguous.
Although nonfinancial corporations frequently purchase and own equity blocks in other nonfinancial corporations in both Europe (Dherment-Ferere et al. (2004), Kirchmaier and Grant (2005)) and the U.S. (Cronqvist and Fahlenbrach (2007)), remarkably little is known about the specific motives and consequences of corporate block purchases. Relative to other types of blockholders such as banks, individual investors or pension funds, corporations have several unique characteristics that give reason to a specific analysis of the motives and consequences of corporate block purchases.
In contrast to takeovers and acquisitions, minority block purchases do not give the acquirer full control over the target firm. Hence, one should suppose that their potential for wealth generation is substantially lower. As new minority blockholders cannot exert full control over the target firm, the realization of wealth creating strategies such as the implementation of operating synergies or increased market power should be inherently limited compared to acquisitions of majority control stakes.
This doctoral thesis follows the research objective of improving our understanding of the motives and consequences of minority equity purchases. It focuses on the wealth effects of minority block purchases and addresses three empirical research gaps in this context.
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Title
Motives for and Consequences of Minority Equity Purchases