Stock prices of Chinese target companies react positively to the announcement of block trades. Such a reaction is greater when publicly tradable shares (PTS) are transferred than when bidders obtain nonpublicly tradable shares (NPTS). PTS transactions also perform significantly better in the long run than do NPTS transactions. These results suggest that stock liquidity matters for corporate control rights transactions to improve target firms' management. We also find that bidders appoint a new CEO or chief director in more than half of the cases of block trades. Better stock price performance for PTS transactions comes mainly from targets with high Tobin's Q. Capital gain opportunities are likely to motivate bidders to expand target firms' businesses for capital gains.

We examine characteristics associated with the probability of Chinese companies being block trade targets. We find that the proportion of non-publicly tradable shares over total outstanding shares is positively related to the probability of firms being block trade targets before the split-share structure reform. Ownership concentration, director ownership, and firm size were negatively related to the frequency of firms being block trade targets during the pre-reform period. Pre-reform firms with high free cash flow were likely to be block trade targets, and bidders paid a high premium to acquire those companies. The cost of a block trade increased significantly after the split-share structure reform, and the frequency of block trades declined considerably. These results suggest that before the reform Chinese bidders mainly pursued private benefits of control rather than capital gains from value-increasing takeovers. After the reform, bidders have bought tradable shares and paid a negative premium, suggesting that being a blockholder in Chinese companies implies costs that exceed benefits.