Corporate Spin-Offs and Shareholders’ Wealth: A Systematic Review and Future Research Agenda - Acta Universitatis Sapientiae

Acta Univ. Sapientiae, Economics and Business, 11 (2023) 42–63

DOI: 10.2478/auseb-2023-0003

Abstract. The spin-off has become a common mode of restructuring in the corporate world for the last few decades and has thus attracted the interest of researchers to investigate how this form of divestiture creates value for shareholders. While there is an agreement among researchers about the wealth creation of spin-offs around the announcement of the event, the sources of this wealth generation remain controversial. Moreover, the long-run stock performance of the spin-offs invites debates, as there are varied shreds of evidence in this regard. The present study endeavours to provide an overview of the existing literature by systematically reviewing 89 theoretical and empirical works published between 1976 and 2021 on short-term and long-term wealth effects separately to provide state-of-the-art research on the topic concerned. Based on the findings of existing literature, certain suggestions for future research have been made.

Keywords: spin-off, corporate divestiture, stock prices, shareholder wealth, systematic review, demerger