The Long Run Abnormal Performance of UK Acquirers and the Free Cash Flow Hypothesis
用英国收购数据检验自由现金流假说，发现高自由现金流的收购方长期表现反而更好，与詹森假说相悖，但符合英国市场现金流与回报相关的证据。
Abstract: Evidence from recent US and UK studies reveals a pattern of poor long run post acquisition performance by acquiring firms. One explanation, due to Jensen (1986) is that acquirers with an excess of free cash flow (FCF) will have a propensity to squander this on wasteful investments, including take‐overs. In this paper, using a dataset of UK take‐overs and proxies for free cash flow similar to those used by Lang, Stulz and Walking (1991) , we find no support for the FCF hypothesis and show that this conclusion is robust to the model of long run returns employed. Contrary to the free cash flow hypothesis there is evidence that acquirers with high free cash flow perform better than acquirers with low free cash flow. Although not consistent with the Jensen hypothesis, this evidence is compatible with the emerging UK evidence that shows cash flow‐to‐price measures are associated with market returns.