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is an investment manager in the energy sector. He was, until 2008, a research and teaching assistant at the European Business School (EBS) in Oestrich-Winkel, Germany. He fi nalized his Ph.D. dissertation at EBS and received his MBA from Katz School of Management, Pittsburgh. His research interests focus on mergers and acquisitions and on related equity capital market transactions of investment banks.

Many authors have identified zero to negative announcement returns for acquirers in traditional mergers and acquisitions. When purchasing state-owned enterprises as compared to public assets the acquirer faces one particular difference: the distinct characteristics of the seller. The selling government is assumed to lack bargaining power and experience selling off its assets and also often to consider non-economic objectives when privatizing. Furthermore it has a tendency to privilege domestic acquirers. By conducting standard event study methodology and analyzing 90 European trade-sale privatizations we document that acquirers in a privatization context yield significant positive abnormal stock returns