Finance Research Seminar: “The benefits of access: evidence from private meetings with portfolio firms” by H. F WAGNER – Bocconi University
Speakers: Hannes F WAGNER
Bocconi Univeristy
A joint work with Marco BECHT & Julian FRANKS
Date and Location – Thursday April 29th 2021 from 12:30 to 14:00 on Zoom
ABSTRACT
We analyze the monitoring efforts of a large active asset manager that involve high-level private meetings with portfolio firms that are unobservable to outsiders. Our analysis reveals the inner workings of the asset management organization based on detailed records of contacts with executives and board members of portfolio firms, internal analyst recommendations, voting decisions, and daily fund-level stock holdings. Private meetings generate pronounced trading pat-terns, with fund managers trading on and around meeting days and votes. Our results show that engagement with target firms generates insights and informa-tion advantages, increases trading and is associated with significant abnormal returns.
Keywords: active investors, trading, institutional investors, corporate governance, stewardship, active ownership, shareholder voting, analysts, fund managers.