Synergies in Mergers & Acquisitions: a comparative sectoral analysis

Synergies or rather the non-achievement of synergies has been the major reason for many failures with regard to mergers and acquisitions. Though success does exist in certain sectors. This brings me to the research question of this thesis: Synergies achieved in the Pharmaceutical and Beauty–Personal Care sectors: Illusion or Real Value Creation? The principal purpose of this research study is to carry out a sectoral comparative analysis, especially for the Pharmaceutical and Beauty–Personal Care sectors as these two are very active in the M&A sector. In order to realize this analysis and answer the core question of this paper, three specific questions have been answered and two hypotheses tested empirically. The first question deals with the identification of common causes for mergers and acquisitions in those sectors. The second relates to the documentation of the component of recorded goodwill (synergies, assembled workforce, and/or others e.g. tax purposes). The third question considers whether economic value is created in the short-term or in the long-term, that is to say whether the synergies come from the first levels of the synergy map and/or the fourth and fifth ones. The first assumption tested can be formulated as follows: There is no relationship between the value of goodwill and the purchase price. The second is: There is no relationship between additional operating cash flows post acquisition (“added_CFO”) and a theoretical 4-year amortization of acquired goodwill (“GW/4”). The research methods include secondary data collection from finance books, consulting companies’ and institutions’ articles/reports, articles in scientific journals related to the topic of mergers and acquisitions, the consolidated annual/financial reports of the acquiring companies from both sectors including the 2018 M&As and 2016 IFRS course slides. The use of these secondary data permitted to collect and evaluate the essential primary data. The automatic function on econometric software Stata, through the commands “regress Goodwill Consideration / DealValue” and “regress Added_CFO GW4 Others4 Location_n”, were then used for both, simple and multiple, regression analyses to test the assumptions discussed above. The t-stat and P-value were considered to see the significance of identified relationships. The F-stat and R-squared tests were also taken into account to see the level of correlation between these variables. The empirical research enables us to observe three outcomes. First, the results of the data analysis demonstrate that the synergies achieved in both sectors are rather “Real Value Creation” than “Illusion”. Second, the simple regression analysis shows a strong correlation between goodwill and the purchase price: the higher the purchase price, the higher the goodwill value. Finally, the multiple regression analysis does not associate any relationship between the added CFO and goodwill when measured post-acquisition. It can be assumed that no positive association between GW and added CFO is an information per se. In other words, corporations cannot prove that the higher the price, the higher the GW, the higher the expectation of added CFO. This may relate to these additional CFO coming from other decisions such as restructuring plans. The recommendation is thus to keep realizing M&As as companies in those sectors do succeed with this activity. However, preparers should understand that a high price / a high level of goodwill will not guarantee value creation through achieved synergies or a stronger assembled workforce, but can result from short-term easy-to-achieve actions such as Reduction in Force and restructuring initiatives

National axiology of A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov’s poetry

Each national image of the world has its own constants, codes. In the Russian space of culture, one of such cultural units is a tree that embodies the idea of a world axis. In this article, we turn to the poetic work of A. M. Zhemchuzhnikov, in whose poetics the tree code is endowed with intense semantics and special functions. We analyze in detail the cycle "Rural Impressions and Pictures ", which is literary material for ontohermeneutical analysis. The purpose of the article is to identify the national axiology, namely the tree code in Russian poetry. The object of the research is the national topic. The subject is the principles of the manifestation of the tree code in the works of the poet of the 19th century. The research methodology is reduced to a holistic onto-hermeneutic analysis aimed at highlighting the folklore, ethnographic paradigm of this poetry cycle. Much attention is paid to a path-road mythologeme. Parallels are drawn with the Russian fairy tale, which is characterized by an otherworldly paradigm, the search for “another kingdom”. The research results are to identify the cultural potential of the poetry cycle for the further study of the national topic, national existence and otherness, apophatics as a phenomenon of Russian culture associated with the phenomenon of death. The results of the work can also be used in teaching courses in Russian literature, cultural studies, philosophy

Landscape as mediator, landscape as commons: an introduction

Il contributo propone una trattazione dei due temi chiavi che si intersecano nel volume, andando a costituire non solo una introduzione ai saggi ivi contenuti, ma una pi\uf9 ampia trattazione delle questioni attorno a cui questi si muovono: le potenzialit\ue0 del concetto di paesaggio considerato come intermediario/mediatore e come bene comune/commons. Il volume raccoglie i migliori contributi internazionali presentati nelle sessioni sul paesaggio del congresso Eugeo 2013 (Roma) coordinate dai curatori dell'opera, e si conclude con una approfondita postfazione redatta da Kenneth R. Olwig, che ha partecipato come discussant ai lavori congressuali

Futur campus santé de Sion: vers une collaboration entre services documentaires? : état des lieux et pistes de réflexion

La HES-SO Valais Wallis a pour projet de construire à l’horizon 2020 un nouveau bâtiment regroupant ses formations dans le domaine de la santé (soins infirmiers et physiothérapie) et du social (filières de niveau école supérieure dans l’éducation de l’enfance et l’action socio-professionnelle). Le choix de la localisation de cette nouvelle infrastructure s’est porté sur le site de Champsec à Sion qui regroupe actuellement plusieurs institutions sanitaires valaisannes (Hôpital du Valais, SUVA, Observatoire valaisan de la santé, etc.). Il existe ainsi un potentiel de synergie possible entre partenaires et futurs voisins. Ce travail a pour objectif de déterminer dans un premier temps l’intérêt des différents partenaires à une collaboration sur le plan de la documentation, d’établir un état de la situation actuelle et de proposer des pistes pour une future collaboration institutionnelle

Integrating Viral Hepatitis Screening and Prevention Services into an Urban Chemical Dependency Treatment Facility for American Indians and Alaska Natives

American Indian/Alaska Natives (AI/AN) patients at an urban residential chemical dependency treatment center participated in a viral hepatitis prevention project. Project activities integrated into patients’ treatment programs included viral hepatitis and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) risk factor screening, education and counseling, laboratory testing, and hepatitis A and B vaccination. Of 928 AI/AN admissions, 585 (63%) completed risk factor screening assessment. Of these, 436 (75%) received at least one vaccination, viral hepatitis testing, or both. Of 322 patients tested, 91 (28%) were hepatitis C virus (HCV) antibody positive. Lack of pre-existing immunity to vaccine-preventable viral hepatitis infection was common: 132 (45%) were susceptible to hepatitis A and 224 (70%) were susceptible to hepatitis B infection. Chemical dependency treatment centers serving urban AI/AN provide important opportunities for implementing viral hepatitis prevention programs for high-risk populations and for improving ongoing efforts to reduce the disparate impact of chronic liver disease in AI/ AN people