Cash takeover bids financed from internally generated cash reserves could be a function of capital market imperfections (Myers and Majluf 1984) or symptomatic of “free-cash-flow” problems (Jensen 1986, 1988). We find that bids financed from cash reserves outperform those that use debt financing. Further, ‘free cash flow’ firms outperform ‘non-free cash flow’ firms. The majority of cash bids are...

Rhodes-Kropf and Viswanathan (2004) suggest an adverse selection role of corporate cash reserve. Specifically, if investors know a bidder does not have to issue to invest, an attempt to do so sends a strong pessimistic signal of overvaluation. Despite its intuitiveness, this notion has not been explicitly studied in the empirical literature. Using a sample of acquisitions that are solely financ...

This paper examines empirically the effect of firm growth opportunities and earnings quality on the market valuation of free cash flow, defined as the difference between operating cash flows and capital expenditures. Equity valuation theory prescribes that free cash flow should not be associated with stock returns because it does not add value. However, free cash flow could become a value-relev...

business is business! And business must grow –Dr. Seuss, The Lorax The paper investigates the agency argument that sales growth in firms with free cash flow (and without strong governance) is less profitable than sales growth for firms without free cash flow. It also tests whether strong governance conditions improve the performance of firms with free cash flow and/or limit the investments in u...

This paper examines the extent of firm level over-investment of free cash flow. Using an accounting-based framework to measure overinvestment and free cash flow, I find evidence that, consistent with agency cost explanations, over-investment is concentrated in firms with the highest levels of free cash flow. Further tests examine whether firms’ governance structures are associated with over-inv...

Agency cost theory is an important branch of capital structural theory. Free cash flow has significant impact on agency cost. The combination of research on these two fields would help to build and extend the theoretical system. Based on agency cost theory, the present study firstly categorized the characteristics of free cash flow as well as the statistical methodologies. Furthermore, the exis...

We present a new model of asset prices in which representative agent has extrapolative beliefs about stock market returns and Epstein-Zin preferences. The quantitatively explains facts prices, return expectations, cash-flow expectations. When the agent’s are calibrated to survey expectations investors, generates excess volatility predictability returns, high equity premium, low stable risk-free...

With free cash flows, borrowers can accumulate cash or voluntarily pay down debts. However, sometimes creditors impose a mandatory repayment covenant called “excess cash flow sweep” in loan contracts to force borrowers to repay debts ahead of schedule. About 17% of borrowers in our sample (1995-2006) have this covenant attached to at least one of their loans. We find that the sweep covenant is ...