Thesis prize of 2,500 euros for Bastiaan Hanewacker, MSc Finance FEB

The Master's thesis which made Bastiaan Hanewacker graduate in the MSc in Finance at the Faculty of Economics and Business (FEB) of the University Groningen this year, was honored with the Eumedion Thesis Prize 2013 yesterday. Hanewacker investigated companies that actively protect themselves against hostile takeovers. He discovered that these measures do not affect the value of the company.

Eumedion is an organization of 70 institutional investors who wish to improve corporate governance and sustainability performance of companies. The prize of 2,500 euros is awarded annually to the best thesis that has good corporate governance and / or sustainability as main subject .

Bastiaan Hanewacker 's award winning thesis is entitled " The influence of anti - takeover provisions on acquirer returns in continental Europe and the UK . Professor Niels Hermes and Dr. Lammertjan Dam supervised the investigation on behalf of the FEB .

High level

The jury [ Dr. Frank Jan de Graaf (UvA) , Dr. Karen Maas (EUR) , Prof. Marco New Weme (Radboud) and Prof. Geert Raaijmakers (VU) ] praises the high level of the thesis, given the depth of the analysis. Hanewacker has taken up a difficult subject: the impact of anti-takeover measures on the profitability of the company. The jury was unanimous and encourages the winner or his supervisors to do further research in this field, and submit it for a conference.

No negative impact

Based on a European dataset, Hanewacker’s research shows that that anti-takeover measures are not negatively correlated with the value of the company. He even suggests that anti-takeover measures can reduce value diminishing take-overs, and can work positively in Europe.