In this paper we use clinical studies to document how dominant shareholders have circumvented mandatory bid rules to appropriate wealth from minority shareholders. Dominant shareholders are numerous in continental Europe. Creative compliance with mandatory bid rules reveals the failure of boards...

Under German takeover law, in a voluntary bid the bidder must offer the target shareholders a price which is based on the average price of the target's shares over a given period.However, if in the run-up to the bid the bidder purchased the target shares at a higher price, the bid price must be...

Based on a unique and consistent dataset of firm ownership in Europe, we set out to systematically catalogue and categorise owners of European equities by type (i.e. family, institutional etc.), and show the importance of ownership coalitions to achieving control. We also highlight the...