Secondary buyouts: speculative transactions or value increase opportunities? evidence from italian puzzle

Leveraged buyouts have received an increasing attention by the financial research literature, within an extensive evidence of gains in productivity and operating performance. Differently, there is a notable lack of research concerning the value increase of buyout targets and returns realized from Secondary Buyouts, which are interesting transactions in market for corporate control due to the involvement of a Private Equity investor both in the buy-side and in the sell-side. The present work aims to analyze Secondary Buyouts, in order to clarified if they are just a speculative evolution of Leveraged Acquisitions or if there is a more complex rationale behind these transactions.