Name Changes and Equity Mutual Fund Returns

In this paper we conduct a study of the impact of name changes on equity fund returns for funds that are listed on the French market and that have changed their name over the period October 1999 to October 2009. We investigate whether name changes on the French market give rise to abnormal fund returns. We find out that a name change has an impact (event-induced variance effect) on the behavior of fund returns over a period of 6 months after the event. An analysis of the determinants of abnormal returns in absolute values allows us to conclude that fund inflows following name changes are not attracted by a fund’s past performance, what suggests a “cosmetic effect”. Finally, we also show that funds with high past returns exhibit low cumulative abnormal returns after a name change. We conclude that it is difficult for managers to realize a higher return on the new inflows following a cosmetic name change.
JEL Classification: G10
Keywords: equity mutual funds; name change; cosmetic effect; event study.