The market reaction to syndicated loan announcements before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and the role of corporate governance

This study examines the wealth effects of syndicated loan announcements before and after the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. Using a sample of 637 loan announcements by European borrowers, we find significantly higher wealth gains during the pandemic compared to the pre-pandemic period. The results suggest that the certification of multiple lenders loans conveys a positive signal for the borrowers’ creditworthiness during the pandemic-driven economic meltdown. We further show that certain corporate governance mechanisms, such as board size, gender diversity, and CEO duality and compensation, are related differently to borrowers’ excess returns before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The results are robust to alternative model specifications that control for different estimation models and event windows. They also hold after addressing self-selection bias.