ESG disclosure and ESG performance of seeking-buyer companies
研究了公开寻求买家的美国公司是否在公告前增加ESG披露和改善ESG表现，以及这些行为是否影响收购结果。发现寻求买家状态与ESG披露正相关，但与ESG表现无关，且两者均不影响被收购概率。
We examine the ESG practices of companies that publicly seek a buyer. Our focus is on whether these companies increase ESG disclosure and performance before the ‘seeking-buyer’ announcement and whether these actions influence the acquisition outcome. Based on a sample of US seeking-buyer firms for the period 2000–2021, we find that seeking-buyer status is positively related to ESG disclosure but not ESG performance. We do not observe that ESG disclosure and performance are associated with the likelihood of being acquired. Our results are consistent with deals being based on targets’ financial characteristics, especially when buyers lack a shared understanding of disclosed ESG information and when this information is not supported by ESG performance.