Seminar abstract
We provide evidence that firms in terrorism-afflicted locations experience lower likelihood of receiving takeover bids and attract lower acquisition premium. The latter finding is reflected in lower target firm announcement stock returns and synergy gains.
Additionally, in terrorism-afflicted locations, withdrawal deals rise, and acquirers increase cross-border and cross-MSA acquisitions, indicating that terrorism-afflicted targets become less attractive.
We attribute our results, among others to human capital being affected by safety, uncertainty and fear. Both, stemming mostly from psychological reasons, induce acquirer CEOs' reluctance for acquisitions of terrorism-afflicted target firms. They also affect target firm's labour productivity, which decreases in terrorism-afflicted locations.
Booking
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Speaker bio
Professor Dimitris Petmezas is Chair in Finance at the Surrey Business School (ex-School of Management), University of Surrey. Prior to taking up this position he was a Reader and Senior Lecturer in Finance and also held the position of Lecturer in Finance at Durham Business School.
Professor Petmezas was also Visiting Scholar at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business.
He was educated at Aristotle University (BA in Economics) and Durham University (MSc in Finance and Investment with Distinction, and PhD in Finance).
Professor Petmezas' main research interests lie in the area of Corporate Finance and more specifically, in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As).
Further, he is interested in issues related with
- corporate innovation
- cash holdings
- asset sales
- working capital management (WCM)
- corporate social responsibility (CSR)
- seasoned equity offerings (SEOs)
Professor Petmezas has published extensively in leading international journals including
- Journal of Finance
- Review of Finance
- Journal of Corporate Finance
- Financial Management
- Journal of Banking and Finance
His paper titled When it Pays to Pay your Investment Banker: New Evidence on the Role of Financial Advisers in M&As was the third most-read article in 2012 in the Journal of Finance among all articles that have ever been published in that journal. Professor Petmezas has also been invited to deliver speeches and present his research at more than 40 universities in the USA, Canada, Europe and China.
His research has also been featured on the programmes of several high profile international conferences such as the European Finance Association (EFA) conference and the American Accounting Association (AAA) Conference, receiving awards, such as Best Paper Award in International Finance at Southwestern Finance Association (SWFA) Conference in 2009.
Professor Petmezas serves as an ad-hoc referee in several academic journals and research grants' bodies and also acts as an external examiner in a number of academic institutions.