Influence of Financial Condition of the Acquiring Company on Dividend Policy of the Target Company after M&A Deal
In: Moscow University Economics Bulletin, Volume 2015, Issue 3, p. 41-59
The paper is devoted to dividend policy of companies that became a target of M&A deal but remained public. Multivariate regression analysis on the sample of 1442 deals completed in 1992–2012 reveals that dividend policy of target companies is significantly influenced by financial condition of acquirers, especially in countries with weaker protection of rights of minority shareholders. The worse is the condition, the higher are dividend payouts. The results demonstrate that dividend policy of public companies can frequently be determined by current interest of the majority shareholder, namely its demand for cash assets. Furthermore, additional evidence that with other things being equal companies pay higher dividends in countries with better protection of rights of minority shareholders is obtained.