Corporate Restructuring and Shareholder Activism (CRSA)

Description

This course discusses core financial restructuring decisions and shareholder activism. It develops an understanding of what activists do and why, how boards respond, and how financial restructurings work both in and out of bankruptcy. The course highlights out of court restructurings such as acquisitions, divestitures, spinoffs and splitoffs, the use of leverage recapitalizations to limit agency costs of free cash flow and, finally financial restructurings including "loan-to-own” strategies in bankruptcy. Results of empirical research are intertwined with specific case discussions. Class discussions typically open with a brief presentation of an activist case brought to class by a student team.