Unlocking the mergers and acquisitions puzzle in the United Arab Emirates: investigating the impact of corporate leverage on target selection and payment methods

Following a long stream of literature on the drivers of Mergers and Acquisition (M&A) activities, this study examines the effect of corporate leverage on several decisions of M&A deals in the context of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Using M&A data from the Thomson One database for the period between 2005 and 2022, we find that corporate leverage significantly influences the type of M&A target. This study further adds to the prior literature on the contradictory behaviours of high- and low-leverage firms by examining whether acquisition decisions differ amongst them in M&A deals in the UAE context. Results indicate that high (low) leverage firms are less (more) likely to acquire private targets and more (less) inclined to acquire a target from a different (same) industry. Furthermore, our results show that the relationship between the method of payment used in M&A deals and corporate leverage is insignificant. We control for endogeneity using Heckman’s two-stage method. In brief, this paper extends the literature with conclusive evidence that considerations of capital structure can significantly anticipate and explain firms’ behaviour toward M&A choices. The implication of findings may include a call to reform some aspects of the Competition Law in the UAE by requiring private firms to enhance their disclosure practices similar to their public counterparts

Choice of the Sampling Interval for the Identification of Continuous-time Systems from Samples of Input/output Data

Conclusions An indirect method of parameter estimation for continuous-time systems from sampled input/output data has been described. Firstly, the ARMA model of the system is identified from the sampled data. Then the order of the reduced model is determined by the dispersion analysis. Finally, the continuous model is obtained by matching the frequency responses of the discrete-time model and the continuous-time model. The proposed estimation procedures have been applied to a power system stabilizer, and satisfactory results are obtained. Acknowledgment This work was supported by the Taipower Company. Reference

Correction: Epidemiology and outcomes of early-onset AKI in COVID-19-related ARDS in comparison with non-COVID-19-related ARDS: insights from two prospective global cohort studies (Critical Care, (2023), 27, 1, (3), 10.1186/s13054-022-04294-5)

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors identified that the collaborating authors part of the collaborating author group CCCC Consortium was missing. The collaborating author group is available and included as Additional file 1 in this article