Junzi Zhang

About

Overview

Junzi Zhang is a Ph.D. student in accounting at Cass Business School. Prior to joining Cass Business School, she achieved a BSc in accounting and finance from Lancaster University, UK and MSc in accounting from Michigan State University, USA. She works under the supervision of Dr. Pawel Bilinski and Dr. Ivana Raonic. Her research interests include CEO compensation, M&A outcomes, and regulatory monitoring.

Qualifications

1. MSc in Accounting, Michigan State University, United States, Aug 2016 – Aug 2017
2. BSc in Accounting and Finance, Lancaster University, United Kingdom, Oct 2012 – Jun 2015

Memberships of professional organisations

1. American Accounting Association, Oct 2015 – present
2. European Accounting Association, Sep 2015 – present

Languages

Chinese (Mandarin) (can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review) and English (can read, write, speak, understand spoken and peer review).

Research

Title of thesis: Does Regulatory monitoring Improve M&A Outcomes? Evidence from Chinese Comment Letters

Sep 2018

Summary of research

This study examines the effect of Chinese comment letters on the bidder’s takeover filings. We document that the market reacts negatively when a firm receives an M&A comment letter and the effect is stronger if the firm receives more than one letter, a longer letter, and the slow a firm responds to the letter. Companies that receive the comment letter during M&A also have lower completion rates. The textual analysis of the letter content shows price reactions are more negative if the issues raised in the letter refer to bidder’s corporate governance quality and business. Investors react more positively if the regulator questions bidder’s accounting quality and M&A deal conditions. Our results are robust to controlling for selectivity in the type of firm that receives a comment letter. Jointly, the results suggest investors perceive regulatory scrutiny to reduce the risk a transaction is value-destroying by increasing deal transparency, which suggests positive benefits from regulatory monitoring of M&A deals.

1^st supervisor

• Dr Pawel Bilinski, Reader

2^nd supervisor

• Dr Ivana Raonic, Senior Lecturer in Accounting & Finance

Publications

Professional activities