Timothy R. Burch, PhD
tburch@biscayneconsulting.net
Tim Burch holds a PhD in finance from the University of Michigan. He also earned a bachelor's degree in business and a Certificate in Actuarial Science, both from the University of Florida.
Dr. Burch is a tenured Associate Professor of Finance at a prominent South Florida business school, where he teaches corporate finance and investments to MBA students and executives. His research focuses on valuation-related topics such as mergers and acquisitions and the value effects of corporate diversification, and general corporate topics such as security issuance and the interaction between firms and their investment banks. His work is published in top academic journals such as the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Business, and Financial Management, and he frequently presents his research at leading national conferences.
Through his research on mergers and acquisitions, Dr. Burch is an expert on how shareholders respond to acquisition proposals. His analysis of acquiring-firm shareholder voting, some of which is detailed in his Financial Management article linked below, can guide managers of public firms in designing acquisitions that are more likely to gain shareholder support. Dr. Burch is also an authority on how acquiring firms use lockup options and breakup fees to increase the likelihood of completing an acquisition, or to compensate themselves if an acquisition fails. His article on lockup options is often referenced in publications such as the Stanford Law Review, The CFA Digest (published by the body awarding the Chartered Financial Analyst certification), and industry guide books such as "Mergers, Acquisitions, and Corporate Restructurings" by Patrick Gaughan.
Prior to pursuing his doctorate, Dr. Burch worked as an actuarial analyst in the pension division of a global consulting firm. His responsibilities included performing actuarial valuations, FASB and PBGC calculations, plan discrimination testing, calculations for IRS filings, and plan design impact studies. Dr. Burch currently serves on the Board of Trustees of a mutual fund family.
Selected publications and working papers
These articles are in pdf format. To obtain a free reader, please visit Adobe Acrobat.
- Locking out rival Bidders: The use of lockup options in corporate mergers
Journal of Financial Economics, Vol 60 (April 2001), pp. 103-141. [This article was also abstracted in The CFA Digest, Vol. 31, No. 4 (November, 2001), pp. 39-41].
- Is acquiring-firm shareholder approval in stock-for-stock mergers perfunctory?
Financial Management Vol. 33 (Winter 2004) pp. 45-69.
- Divisional diversity and the conglomerate discount: The evidence from spin-offs
Journal of Financial Economics Vol 70 (October 2003), pp. 69-98.
- What's in a name? Hotellings's valuation principle and business school namings
Journal of Business Vol 78 (July 2005), pp. 1111 - 1135.
- Do firms time equity offerings? Evidence from the 1930s and 1940s
Financial Management Vol 33 (Spring 2004) pp. 5-23.
- The pricing of U.S. IPOs by seasoned foreign firms
Review of Financial Economics Vol 12, pp. 345-362.
- What can "nine-eleven" tell us about closed-end fund discounts and investor sentiment?
The Financial Review Vol 38 (November 2003) 515-529.
- Does it pay to be loyal? An empirical analysis of underwriting relationships and fees
Journal of Financial Economics Vol 77 (September 2005), pp. 673-699.
- Industry structure and value-motivated conglomeration
Under revision.
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Michael E. Fuerst, PhD
mfuerst@biscayneconsulting.net
Michael Fuerst holds a PhD in finance from the University of Michigan. His other degrees include a bachelor's degree in psychology from Florida State University, an MBA from Cornell University, and an MA in applied economics from the University of Michigan. Dr. Fuerst is an Accredited Valuation Analyst (certified by the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts).
In addition to rigorous academic training and years of experience teaching corporate and international finance to MBA students and executives, Dr. Fuerst brings to the BCA team substantial experience in finanical and operations consulting with a Big Four firm including:
- Accounting operations analysis for one of the three largest long distance telecommunications firms,
- Market demand assessment for a new electronic, screen-based telephony/electronic banking transaction technology,
- Productivity improvement program development in the shipping industry,
- Operational improvement and financial reporting consolidations for a national cellular telephony firm, and
- Integrated management information system requirements for a global overnight package delivery client.
Among Dr. Fuerst's areas of active research are corporate governance, fraud detection, banking, financial system architecture, market inefficiency, and the relationship between investment risk and the macroeconomy. Dr. Fuerst's research interests and engagements typically overlap. With respect to valuation services, for example, Dr. Fuerst's forthcoming article on investor risk premiums and the macroeconomy (linked below) makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the cost of capital over the business cycle. This research has relevance to valuation as it shows the required compensation for risk varies over different states of the economy, and consequently, the appropriate discount rate for valuation may need to be adjusted based on current and forecasted macroeconomic conditions.
His latest area of research is in the statistical detection of fraud and human manipulation of accounting data. A well-known natural relationship among numbers is Benford’s law. Deviations from this law have been used to detect manipulation of data in accounting and other areas. Dr. Fuerst's research tests the appropriateness of the statistical assumptions that underlie Benford’s law.
Selected publications and working papers
These articles are in pdf format. To obtain a free reader, please visit Adobe Acrobat.
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