Controlling Shareholders and the Acquisition Premiums Paid in European Takeover Bids

This paper examines the incentives of controlling shareholders in the market for corporate control. We investigate the takeover premiums paid by a sample of European acquiring firms with concentrated voting rights structures. The results show a positive relationship between takeover premiums and the bidder's concentration of both voting rights and excess voting rights over cash-flow rights. With higher levels of bidder entrenchment, the valuation of a takeover target increasingly reflects the private benefits of control which bidders seek to extract from a dealControlling shareholders ; separation between the ownership and the control ; takeover premiums ; private benefits

Investor Protection and the Value Effects of Bank Merger Announcements in Europe and the US

Investor protection regimes have been shown to partly explain why the same type of corporate event may attract different investor reactions across countries. We compare the value effects of large bank merger announcements in Europe and the US and find an inverse relationship between the level of investor protection prevalent in the target country and abnormal returns that bidders realize during the announcement period. Accordingly, bidding banks realize higher returns when targeting low protection economies (most European economies) than bidders targeting institutions which operate under a high investor protection regime (the US). We argue that bidding bank shareholders need to be compensated for an increased risk of expropriation by insiders which they face in a low protection environment where takeover markets are illiquid and there are high private benefits of control

What do premiums paid for bank M&As reflect? the case of the European Union

We analyze the takeover premiums paid for a sample of European bank mergers between 1997 and 2007. We find that acquiring banks value profitable, high-growth, and low-risk targets. We also find that the strength of bank regulation and supervision and of deposit insurance regimes in Europe has measurable effects on takeover pricing. Stricter bank regulatory regimes and stronger deposit insurance schemes lower the takeover premiums paid by acquiring banks. This result, presumably in anticipation of higher compliance costs, is mainly driven by domestic deals. Also, we find no conclusive evidence that bidders seek to extract benefits from regulators either by paying a premium for deals in less regulated regimes or becoming too big to fail.

“Pure” severe aortic stenosis without concomitant valvular heart diseases:echocardiographic and pathophysiological features

Purpose!#!In echocardiography the severity of aortic stenosis (AS) is defined by effective orifice area (EOA), mean pressure gradient (mPG!##!Methods and results!#!Patients (n = 306) with asymptomatic (n = 133) and symptomatic (n = 173) 'pure' severe AS (mean age 78 ± 9.5 years) defined by indexed EOA < 0.6 cm!##!Conclusion!#!In patients with 'pure' AS according to current guidelines the presence of combined LVH, DD and PAH as accepted pathophysiological sequelae of severe AS cannot be confirmed. Probably, the detection of these secondary cardiac alterations might improve the diagnostic algorithm to avoid overestimation of AS severity

What do premiums paid for bank M&As reflect?:The case of the European Union

We analyze the takeover premiums paid for a sample of domestic and cross-border bank takeovers in the European Union between 1997 and 2007. We find that acquiring banks value profitable, high-growth and low risk targets. We also find that the strength of bank regulation and supervision as well as deposit insurance regimes in Europe have measurable effects on takeover pricing. Stricter bank regulatory regimes and stronger deposit insurance schemes lower the takeover premiums paid by acquiring banks. This result, presumably in anticipation of higher compliance costs, is driven by domestic deals. Similar qualitative results are found for both the entire sample and the sample of publicly traded targets

3D echocardiographic reference ranges for normal left ventricular volumes and strain: Results fromthe EACVI NORRE study

Aim To obtain the normal ranges for 3D echocardiography (3DE) measurement of left ventricular (LV) volumes, function, and strain from a large group of healthy volunteers. Methods and results A total of 440 (mean age: 45613 years) out of the 734 healthy subjects enrolled at 22 collaborating institutions of the Normal Reference Ranges for Echocardiography (NORRE) study had good-quality 3DE data sets that have been analysed with a vendor-independent software package allowing homogeneous measurements regardless of the echocardiographic machine used to acquire the data sets. Upper limits of LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes were larger in men (97 and 42 mL/m2) than in women (82 and 35 mL/m2; P<0.0001). Conversely, lower limits of LV ejection fraction were higher in women than in men (51% vs. 50%; P<0.01). Similarly, all strain components were higher in women than in men. Lower range was -18.6% in men and -19.5% in women for 3D longitudinal strain, -27.0% and -27.6% for 3D circumferential strain, -33.2% and -34.4% for 3D tangential strain and 38.8% and 40.7% for 3D radial strain, respectively. LV volumes decreased with age in both genders (P<0.0001), whereas LV ejection fraction increased with age only in men. Among 3DE LV strain components, the only one, which did not change with age was longitudinal strain. Conclusion The NORRE study provides applicable 3D echocardiographic reference ranges for LV function assessment. Our data highlight the importance of age- and gender-specific reference values for both LV volumes and strain. All rights reserved