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Credit spreads and merger pricing

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Abstract

Previous studies (Axelson et al. in J Finance 68(6):2223–2267, 2013; Gorbenko and Malenko in J Finance 69(6):2513–2555, 2014) find that transaction prices and maximum-willingness-to-pay for targets are negatively correlated with credit market conditions. We extend the literature along two dimensions. First, we focus on takeover premiums (which account for market conditions), not transaction prices or maximum-willingness-to-pay. Second, we use predicted changes in credit spreads (which are less likely driven by confounding factors), not contemporaneous changes in credit spreads. Empirically, we find that predicted changes in the credit spread negatively impact takeover premiums, and that the correlation between predicted credit spreads and takeover premiums is not significantly different between private and public acquisitions.

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Notes

  1. We thank Fama and French for making these data available at http://mba.tuck.dartmouth.edu/pages/faculty/ken.french/.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The W. A. Franke College of Business, Northern Arizona University, PO Box 15066, Flagstaff, AZ, 86011, USA

    Ding Du & Mason Gerety

Authors
  1. Ding Du
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  2. Mason Gerety
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Correspondence to Ding Du.

Additional information

Part of this research was conducted, while Ding Du was visiting the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, at College Park.

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Du, D., Gerety, M. Credit spreads and merger pricing. J Asset Manag 19, 169–178 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41260-017-0072-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/s41260-017-0072-5

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