Industry expertise, information leakage and the choice of M&A advisors

This paper examines the impacts of M&A advisors’ industry expertise on firms’ choice of advisors in mergers and acquisitions. We show that an investment bank's expertise in merger parties’ industries increases its likelihood of being chosen as an advisor, especially when the acquisition is...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chang, Xin, Shekhar, Chander, Tam, Lewis H. K., Yao, Jiaquan
Other Authors: Nanyang Business School
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/80197
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/40457
Description
Summary:This paper examines the impacts of M&A advisors’ industry expertise on firms’ choice of advisors in mergers and acquisitions. We show that an investment bank's expertise in merger parties’ industries increases its likelihood of being chosen as an advisor, especially when the acquisition is more complex, and when a firm in M&A has less information about the merger counterparty. However, due to the concerns about information leakage to industry rivals through M&A advisors, acquirers are reluctant to share advisors with rival firms in the same industry, and they are more likely to switch to new advisors if their former advisors have advisory relationship with their industry rivals. In addition, we document that advisors with more industry expertise earn higher advisory fees and increase the likelihood of deal completion.