The Value Effects of Bank Mergers and Acquisitions

The banking industry has experienced an unprecedented level of consolidation on a belief that gains can accrue through expense reduction, increased market power, reduced earnings volatility, and scale and scope economies. A review of the literature suggests that the value gains that are alleged have not been verified. The paper then seeks to address alternative explanations and reconcile the data with continued merger activity.

Motives of mergers and acquisitions in the European public utilities: an empirical investigation of the wealth-anomaly

© 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the motivation and post-merger operating performance (OP) of European utility sectors following mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Design/methodology/approach: Motives behind M&A are examined by looking into the relationships between total gains, target gains and acquirer gains. Post-merger OP is measured by comparing the sample of European utilities with a matched portfolio based on size and market to book ratio with respect to five accounting indicators: growth in turnover, growth in earnings before interest and tax, return on assets, net profit margin and growth in fixed assets. Findings: Synergy is the primary motive for M&A in the European utility firms. This study also found that post-merger OP is negative and significant across all the five accounting indicators matched by size, and market to book ratio suggesting that utility mergers underperform in the long term. The findings suggest that gains accruing to utilities involved in acquisitions are short term in nature. Practical implications: Negative post-merger OP bears important policy implications as in future antitrust/competition authorities should be more vigilant before approving utility mergers. Originality/value: Public utilities possess several characteristics that are different from industrial firms and therefore need to be examined separately. Empirical literature on M&A is very limited on utilities. This study has addressed this gap by examining the motivation and post-merger OP of the European utility firms

Refocusing on the Success Enabling Factors in Mergers and Acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions have continued to serve as a primary financing tool undertaken by organizations to achieve corporate objectives. Despite the increased popularity of the mergers and acquisitions phenomenon, determining acceptable metrics for identifying successful mergers and acquisitions continue to pose challenges to investors, financial analysts and other stakeholders involved with mergers and acquisitions. Mergers and acquisitions activities have presented mixed outcomes to different organizations with high failure rates recorded in some and less-significant successes reported in others. Consequently, understanding acceptable metrics for determining a successful merger or acquisition becomes paramount given the challenges experienced by players in that industry. Therefore, a thorough review of the literature is made in this study to identify factors that improve the chances of mergers and acquisitions success. The unique features of successful and unsuccessful mergers and acquisitions are itemized to provide a premise for assessing and evaluating the essential characteristics that make mergers and acquisitions successful. The importance of due diligence, low acquisition purchase premiums, and related business acquisitions in the mergers and acquisitions process were fully explicated. Low acquisition purchase premiums, timing of mergers and acquisitions and related business acquisitions were found to tremendously enhance the success of mergers and acquisitions

The Role of Technology in M&As: A Firm Level Comparison of Cross-Border and Domestic Deals

Technological change is often hypothesized as one of the main drivers of merger activities. This paper analyzes the role of technology in mergers and acquisitions (M&As) at the firm level. Based on a newly created data set that combines financial information and patent data for public firms in Europe as well as country level variables, we apply a structural model to investigate technology-related motivations behind merger formation. Distinguishing between cross-border and domestic M&As, we find that technological relatedness of the M&A partners reduces uncertainty and the expected risk of failure associated with cross-border acquisitions significantly, whereas there is no evidence for technological complementarities driving domestic M&As. The relevance of technology for cross-border M&As further illustrates the international character of technology markets. --domestic versus cross-border M&As,technological relatedness,market relatedness

A theory on merger timing and announcement returns

This paper develops a dynamic model for the timing and terms of mergers and acquisitions. In contrast to other models, we show that firms agree about the timing independently from how the merger surplus is shared. Firms agree on the timing and discuss the sharing rule of the merger surplus according to their bargaining power or some other exogenous factor. We also show that, under asymmetric information, the combination of surprises regarding merger timing and merger terms, can produce either negative or positive abnormal returns for the merging firms.COMPETE, QREN, FEDER, FC

Efficiency, scale economies and valuation effects : evidence from bank mergers in India

Original article can be found at : http://www.inderscience.com/ Copyright Inderscience PublishersThis paper examines two important issues related to bank mergers in India. First, we estimate potential economic gains of state owned banks if they undergo consolidation. Scale economies, returns to scale and profit efficiency of state owned banks during 1986 to 2003 are estimated based on stochastic frontier analysis. We find that many Indian banks exhibit potential cost savings from mergers provided they rationalize their branch networks although profit efficiency may not rise immediately. Second we measure the realized impact of bank mergers on shareholders’ wealth based on event study analysis. We find that in the case of forced mergers, shareholders of neither the bidder nor the target banks benefited. In the case of voluntary mergers, the bidder banks’ shareholders gained more than the target banks’ shareholders.Peer reviewe

Takeover Waves: Triggers, Performance and Motives

This paper reviews the vast academic literature on the market for corporate control.Our main focus is the cyclical wave pattern this market exhibits.From the perspective of takeover waves, we address questions such as: Why do mergers and acquisitions (M&As) occur?Does the ensuing transfer of control generate shareholder gains?What are the main profitability drivers in M&As by takeover wave?We find that the pattern of takeover activity and its profitability significantly vary across the various takeover waves.Despite such diversity, all waves have similarities: they are preceded by technological or industrial shocks, and occur in a positive economic and political environment, amidst rapid credit expansion and stock market booms.Takeovers towards the end of each wave are usually driven by non-rational, frequently selfinterested managerial decision-making.mergers;diversification;takeover waves