Identifying the Value of Top Advisors:Evidence from the Acquisition Motives of Clients

邓可斌，现任华南理工大学经济与贸易学院金融系教授、博士生导师，广东省供应链金融工程技术研究中心主任（省级研究基地）。已在国内外权威和核心期刊如《经济研究》、《经济学（季刊）》、《管理科学学报》、《世界经济》、《Accounting and Finance》等发表论文九十余篇，主持完成和在研国家自然科学基金（海外与港澳台学者合作项目、青年基金项目）、国家社科基金（一般项目）、教育部人文社科基金（一般项目）、广东省自然科学基金（面上项目）等十数项国家级、省部级课题及决策咨询课题。相关研究成果曾获广东省哲学社科一等奖、广州市哲学社科三等奖、广东省金融优秀成果一等奖等多项奖励。

The effect of client requirements on the performance of top financial advisors in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has remained relatively unexplored. Using China’s unique M&A setting, this paper provides evidence on difference of the ability to meet clients’ requirements in M&As among top financial advisors. In this paper, we divide M&A acquirers into an opportunistic group and a non-opportunistic group: the former includes firms pursuing public listing through reverse merger or obtaining refinancing qualification, who attach greater importance to complete the deals; the latter involves firms aiming for operational synergy, who place more weight on the M&A performance. We illustrate that top financial advisors working for non-opportunistic firms offer better M&A performance, while those working for opportunistic firms have higher M&A completion rate. Overall, we show that top financial advisors do pay attention to client requirements and perform accordingly in an incentive-compatibility setting.