High Yield Financing and Efficiency-Enhancing Takeovers
Susanne Trimbath
Milken Institute Policy Brief No. 22, 27 November 2000
This study analyzes the determinants of the risk of takeover from 1981 to 1997 based on a sample of 896 Fortune 500 firms using sophisticated methodology. The measure of firm efficiency includes both production costs and overhead expenses. If relatively inefficient firms are chosen as the targets in takeovers and the new owners reduce the costs of these inefficiencies, then the potential for gains from takeovers for the US economy exists. Because firm-level costs are adjusted for the industry median, the study is able to capture the inefficiency implications of firms where it is clear that other firms in the same general product line are better controlling their costs. Indeed, high total cost per unit of revenue is a powerful determinant of the risk of takeover throughout the period under study. The impact of size on the risk of takeover, however, changed across time.
PDF (29 pages): High Yield Financing and Efficiency-Enhancing Takeovers
