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By Hamish Armstrong (PR and Communications Manager (Interim)), Published

More than 200 delegates attended the Mergers and Acquisitions Research Centre (MARC) Annual Conference, hosted by the Business School (formerly Cass) across Monday 28th and Tuesday 29th June.

The event is the largest academic conference in the world dedicated to mergers and acquisitions, with a programme of highly-esteemed academic contributors presenting the latest research insights for the field. More than 70 academic papers were submitted for this year’s event, with just seven accepted in a strongly competitive and selective process.

This year’s conference was also the first to be held online, having been postponed in June 2020 due to the pandemic. Sessions were chaired by experts from the Centre, and included a keynote from Rick Faery, Managing Director and Global Head of Corporate Insights Group at Credit Suisse.

Professor Scott Moeller, Director of MARC, together with co-hosts, Professor Paolo Volpin, Dean of the Business School and Professor Anh Tran, Professor of Finance, said that although this year’s conference was held online and that they missed the personal interaction with the delegates and presenters, the standard of research and discussion was as high as ever.

“The MARC Annual Conference brings together the world’s leading academic M&A researchers and thinkers from across the world to present the latest industry insights,” Professor Moeller said.

“It is a really interesting time for the global M&A environment, as the post-pandemic picture starts to become clearer. This year we were delighted to hear from seven exceptional presenters from around the world, covering pertinent research points from M&A labour force and security, to stock market valuation effects and the role of social media in managerial decision-making.

“We were also very grateful to hear from Rick Faery and gain the corporate perspective on how recent developments – and indeed the research discussed – are affecting the global investment banking space.

“The fifth annual conference was the first to be held online, but as with other virtual events this allowed us to expand our audience of delegates to a global reach allowing more to attend than ever before. Our thanks go to everybody who supported the event including Mr Faery, the academic speakers and all researchers who submitted papers for this year’s event.  We look forward to welcoming everyone back to London for next year’s event.”

The following academic experts presented their work at the conference:

  • Shenje Hshieh (City University of Hong Kong): 'Hiring high-skilled labor through mergers and acquisitions'
  • Thomas Noe (University of Oxford): ‘Security design for the acquisition of private firms’
  • Leonce Bargeron (University of Kentucky): ‘Acquisitions and CEO compensation changes’
  • Christoph M. Schiller (Arizona State University): ‘Are managers listening to Twitter? Evidence from Mergers & Acquisitions’
  • Fangyuan Ma (Peking University): ‘EPS-sensitivity and mergers’
  • Anjana Rajamani (Erasmus University): ‘Real effects of stock market valuations: Local valuation spillovers in M&A activity’
  • Micah S. Officer (Loyola Marymount University): ‘How do equity analysts impact takeovers?’

Find out more about the Mergers and Acquisitions Research Centre at the Business School (formerly Cass).

See all events taking place at the Business School (formerly Cass).