PurposeThis paper investigates the relationship between a firm's susceptibility to a hostile takeover and investors' reactions to a seasoned equity offering (SEO).Design/methodology/approachThe study applies ordinary least squares (OLS) with fixed effects regression analyses to a sample of 2,517 observations from US listed companies. Event study methodology was employed to capture market reactions to the announcement of newly issued stocks. To achieve cross-sectional analyses, time variations in takeover laws allowed us to perform the desired tests across two decades of data.FindingsThe results suggest that investors react positively to the announcement of an equity offering when the threat of hostile takeover is higher. The magnitude of positive stock market reactions varies over two decades due to time series variations in takeover laws. Furthermore, the findings show that a higher hostile takeover index (HTI) score reduces investors' concerns about the inefficient usage of proceeds in acquisitions.Practical implicationsThe results demonstrate that the corporate takeover legal environment provides an important external governance mechanism through which investors' confidence increases during an SEO event. The study's empirical evidence implies that the extent of external disciplinary mechanism plays a significant role in reducing investors' uncertainty about the misuse of raised capital.Originality/valueThe exogenous fast-evolving legal environment surrounding the takeover market in the United Status allowed our study to bypass the endogeneity concerns in measuring governance strength. From the review of prior literature, this paper appears to be the first to use HTI scores to examine investors' reactions to a corporate announcement.

This study investigates the market reaction to the changes in dividend announcements at the Malaysia stock exchange formally called Bursa Malaysia. Data is gathered for a sample of 356 dividend announcement made by 138 firms pined in the main market between the years 2008 to 2011. The results show that the market reacts positively to dividend increasing stocks but no significant react to the constant dividend or the decreasing group of dividend announcements. It was also observed from the information in a day prior to the announcement day that there is a probable leakage of information by the excess access to the insider information of the firms.

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