The Role of Activist Hedge Funds in Distressed Firms Jongha Lim1, 2 Fisher College of Business The Ohio State University This Version: November 19th, 2010 Abstract Frictions to efficient bargaining provide an opportunity for a hedge fund to invest in distressed firms, facilitate reorganizations, and capture some of the rents from doing so. This paper considers a sample of 184 financially distressed firms for the period from 1998 to 2009, and finds that distressed investing has become an important avenue for activism by hedge funds. Distress-focused hedge funds utilize a „fulcrum‟ investment strategy so as to maximize their influence on the reorganization process. Empirical evidence is consistent with the view that hedge funds capture some of the rents they create by reorganizing the distressed firms. First, distress-oriented hedge funds tend to target economically healthy firms in which contracting difficulties are likely to prevent efficient reorganization. Second, hedge funds‟ presence as creditors leads to effective restructuring through both debt-equity swaps and pre-packaged filings. In addition, when hedge funds inject new equity capital into targeted firms, the duration of distress is significantly reduced. Both debt and equity investments by hedge funds are associated with significantly higher probabilities of successful restructuring. Lastly, distress-focused funds in my sample have produced an annual compounded return of 8.6% over the 1998-2009 period, which is economically significant, compared to 3.2% generated by the stock market over the same period. 1 Contacts: Jongha Lim, Doctoral student, Fisher College of Business, The Ohio State University, 2100 Neil Ave, Columbus, Ohio, 43210; E-mail:
[email protected].