AN EVENT STUDY OF THE DELISTING OF HOSPITALITY STOCKS IN THE UNITED STATES

Managers make important corporate strategic investment decisions such as mergers and acquisitions to improve the long-term competitiveness of their organizations; while at times they may be forced to manage for the short-term in order to satisfy the demands from the stock market.However, there is a lack of empirical research to examine the short- versus long-term view of management decision-making.This study analyses the mergers and acquisitions activities in the hospitality industry and particularly, investigates delisting behaviour of publicly traded hospitality firms and whether companies exhibit distinct patterns before delisting. Consolidation is prevalent in a maturing industry such as hospitality which currently faces a fiercely competitive global environment. The results of the study show that there is substantial difference between hospitality and non-hospitality stocks: not much information leakage in the delisting of hospitality stocks and a marked increase in institutional holdings with time but significant information leakage in non-hospitality stocks as reflected by positive and significant abnormal returns

Examining the Impact of STR Weekly RevPAR Announcements on Lodging Stock Returns

This study investigated whether or not there were abnormal stock market returns on the announcement date of weekly RevPAR (revenue per available room) data by the lodging industry research firm STR. Using event study methodology, the study found that there were not statistically significant abnormal returns on the weekly RevPAR announcement date for the period from 2004 to 2009. The implications of this study are important to the hotel investment community including lodging stock owners and investors, stock analysts, investment bankers, and consultants as it indicates that there is not advance trading in lodging stocks based on the STR weekly RevPAR announcements

The Effect of Financial Leverage on Profitability and Risk of Restaurant Firms

This study presents an empirical insight into the relationship between return on equity (ROE), financial leverage and size of firms in the restaurant industry for the period 1998 to 2003 using OLS regressions. Research results suggest that at least during the test period firm size had a more dominant effect on ROE of restaurant firms than debt use, larger firms earning significantly higher equity returns. Results also suggest that regardless of having lower financial leverage, smaller restaurant firms were significantly more risky than larger firms. As such, the dominance of size effect in the ROE-financial leverage relationship within the restaurant industry is better understood