Performance analysis of healthcare-focused special purpose acquisition companies

Behavioral components of Kahneman and Tversky’s (1979) prospect theory (PT) were applied to derive an adjusted Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM) in the estimation of merger and acquisition-intensive firms’ expected returns. The premise was that the CAPM – rooted in expected utility theory – is violated by the behavioral biases identified in prospect theory. Kahneman and Tversky’s prospect theory (1979) has demonstrated that weaknesses abound in the viability of classical utility theory predictions. For mergers and acquisitions, firms appear to be isolated from and immune to human error, yet decisions which involve the undertaking of capital-intensive projects are delegated to senior management. These individuals are prone to cognitive biases and personalized risk appetites that may (and often do) compromize attitudes and behavior when it comes to pricing risky ventures. Having established that beta estimates using linear regression are inferior, the CAPM was implemented utilizing beta estimates obtained from the Kalman filter. The results obtained were assessed for their long-term market price predictive accuracy. The authors test the reliability of the CAPM as a predictor of price, observe the rationality of human behavior in capital markets, and attempt to model premiums to adjust CAPM returns to a level that more appropriately accounts for firm specific risk. The researchers show that market participants behave irrationally when assessing M&A firms’ specific risk. Logistic regression coupled with the development of a risk premium was implemented to correct the original Kalman filter returns and was tested for improvements in predictive power.

The Chinese market for corporate control has recently gained much academic attention. This research constructs a sample of 159 cross-border acquisitions made by 123 Chinese firms between 2010 and 2014 and relates the roles of governance and culture to the wealth effects of mergers. First, the shareholders of Chinese bidders experience gains upon the announcement of overseas mergers. Second, country- and firm-level governance notably affects the cumulative abnormal returns of Chinese acquirers. Lastly, and however, the cultural distance per Hofstede’s (1980) four cultural dimensions does not appear to be a significant factor in determining the shareholder wealth of Chinese purchasers.

Using quarterly data from 2010 to 2019, this paper investigates the impact of listing status on the performance of the National Commercial Bank (NCB), the largest commercial bank in Saudi Arabia, by applying a combination of financial ratios analysis and efficient frontier analysis with a mix of parametric and non-parametric tests. The overall results show that although the NCB performance is superior compared to their counterparts, this superiority has deteriorated after the bank was listed in 2014. This result was captured by the deterioration in the efficiency measures of NCB, indicating the significance of using the efficient frontier analysis as an additional monitoring tool by the Saudi regulators. The financial ratios analysis also shows that even though the NCB profitability has increased, there is an increase in the bank’s overall risk after being listed. Therefore, Saudi regulators should closely monitor their listed banks as these banks are directed toward high-risk assets.