Over the past year, a record 266 companies have spun off divisions in a trend bankers are calling 鈥淪pinmania.鈥� If history is any guide, about 35 of those deals will have leaked undetected to inside traders.
A new study by a team of finance professors suggests one in eight corporate spinoffs and divestments in the U.S. between 1996 and the end of 2013 was preceded by suspicious trading in options markets. The Securities and Exchange Commission hasn鈥檛 brought a single case relating to such trading then or since, according to the report, due to be published later this month.聽
