Mergers and acquisitions in food and agribusiness: Returns, drivers, and long run performance

Food and agribusiness in the U.S is a dynamic and ever changing business. The industry has seen booms and busts, considerable consolidation, and continued globalization in the past few decades. Businesses operating within its sectors have had to demonstrate flexibility and adaptability as the industry’s landscape consolidates at the consumer, supplier, and producer level. One strategy companies have used to grow and position themselves throughout years of industry consolidation has been merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. During the eleven years from 1985 and 1995, the food industry was listed in the top 10 M&A most active industries ten times. It was counted in the top five for six of those years (Adelaja et al. 1999). This highlights the significance M&A has played in food and agribusiness. Despite the prevalence of M&A, there exists much dispute on the value of it, and whether it is beneficial to shareholders at all. The impact of M&A on shareholder value and company performance following a transaction or transaction’s announcement is the focus of this paper. M&A transactions are analyzed in the short and long run according to the abnormal returns calculated following a transaction’s announcement. The long run impact is further analyzed using changes in financial performance following a transaction. Abnormal returns are calculated using the market and market adjusted normal returns models. Generalized sign z and Patell z statistical tests were used to analyze cumulative abnormal returns over multiple event windows. The conclusions of this paper focus on the 0-1 day event window and the calculations are subject to backdating. Average cumulative abnormal returns for acquirer shareholders were found to be roughly 1% following a transaction’s announcement for the 0-1 day event window, while target shareholders reported a 17% gain. Both results were statistically significant at the .05 or less level. Long run buy and hold abnormal returns (BHAR) for acquirers were measured over the event window -1 to 36 months following a transaction’s announcement. The market adjusted model reported a mean loss of 7.6% for acquirer shareholders during this time period. Detrimental long run performance is further supported by the analysis of financial metric changes in acquirer firms during the years following a transaction. Asset turnover, debt to equity, and return on equity were found to be lower on average in the years following a transaction than prior. Lastly, OLS regressions were used to examine drivers of abnormal returns. Acquirer abnormal return regressions report variables reflecting acquirer return on assets, target return on assets, cash transactions, and transactions in the food and beverage retailing industry as all statistically significant factors impacting acquirer return. Coefficients for transactions in food and beverage retailing as well as cash transactions were positive. Acquirer and target ROA variables had negative coefficients in acquirer return OLS regressions. Target abnormal return regressions report variables reflecting cash transactions, hostile transaction, and competitive transactions as all statistically significant factors impacting returns. The coefficients on these variables were positive. Short run market and market adjusted model abnormal returns were found to be very correlated and differ greatly only in long run calculated returns

United States post Gulf-War policy toward Iraq: A systemic assessment

This thesis proposes that US policy is structurally flawed toward Iraq and the Middle East in general. This structural flaw in US policy-making is a result of ignoring the regional considerations of the Middle East as a subsystem. Current US strategy toward Iraq is doomed to fail because of the unique structural considerations in the Middle East and the failure of policy-makers to recognize them; The thesis begins with a theoretical examination of the Middle East subsystem, based on principles from international systems theory. Several patterns of regularity that define the subsystem are then outlined. An assessment of US goals and strategies in the region and specifically toward Iraq will be discussed in terms of the systemic nature of the region. Finally, the case of US sanctions in Iraq will be used as an example of a failed US policy that was not in line with the regional considerations of the Middle East

Re-circumscription of the mimosoid genus Entada including new combinations for all species of the phylogenetically nested Elephantorrhiza (Leguminosae, Caesalpinioideae, mimosoid clade)

Recent phylogenomic analyses of 997 nuclear genes support the long-held view that the genus Entada is congeneric with Elephantorrhiza. Entada is resolved as monophyletic only if the genus Elephantorrhiza is subsumed within it. The two genera were distinguished solely by relatively minor differences in the mode of dehiscence of the fruits (a craspedium separating into one-seeded endocarp segments in Entada versus a craspedium with the whole fruit valve breaking away from the persistent replum in Elephantorrhiza) and the craspedial fruit type itself provides a shared synapomorphy for the re-circumscribed Entada. Here, we provide a synopsis of Entada, including 11 new combinations in total, for the eight species, one subspecies and one variety previously placed in Elephantorrhiza, as well as a new combination for a subspecies of Entada rheedei Spreng. not previously dealt with when Entada pursaetha DC. was placed in synonymy. These new combinations are: Entada burkei (Benth.) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada elephantina (Burch.) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada goetzei (Harms) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada goetzei subsp. lata (Brenan & Brummitt) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada obliqua (Burtt Davy) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada praetermissa (J.H. Ross) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada rangei (Harms) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada rheedei subsp. sinohimalensis (Grierson & D.G. Long) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada schinziana (Dinter) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; Entada woodii (E. Phillips) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov.; and Entada woodii var. pubescens (E. Phillips) S.A. O’Donnell & G.P. Lewis, comb. nov. We provide a revised circumscription of the genus Entada which now comprises 40 species distributed pantropically, with the greatest diversity of species in tropical Africa. We present a complete taxonomic synopsis, including a map showing the global distribution of the genus and photographs showing variation amongst species in habit, foliage, flowers and fruits. A short discussion about extrafloral nectaries, mainly observed in the Madagascan species, is presented

Functional Characterization of MAT1-1-Specific Mating-Type Genes in the Homothallic Ascomycete Sordaria Macrospora Provides New Insights into Essential and Nonessential Sexual Regulators

Mating-type genes in fungi encode regulators of mating and sexual development. Heterothallic ascomycete species require different sets of mating-type genes to control nonself-recognition and mating of compatible partners of different mating types. Homothallic (self-fertile) species also carry mating-type genes in their genome that are essential for sexual development. To analyze the molecular basis of homothallism and the role of mating-type genes during fruiting-body development, we deleted each of the three genes, SmtA-1 (MAT1-1-1), SmtA-2 (MAT1-1-2), and SmtA-3 (MAT1-1-3), contained in the MAT1-1 part of the mating-type locus of the homothallic ascomycete species Sordaria macrospora. Phenotypic analysis of deletion mutants revealed that the PPF domain protein-encoding gene SmtA-2 is essential for sexual reproduction, whereas the alpha domain protein-encoding genes SmtA-1 and SmtA-3 play no role in fruiting-body development. By means of cross-species microarray analysis using Neurospora crassa oligonucleotide microarrays hybridized with S. macrospora targets and quantitative real-time PCR, we identified genes expressed under the control of SmtA-1 and SmtA-2. Both genes are involved in the regulation of gene expression, including that of pheromone genes

New Mexico Environment Department Public Hearing on Corrective Measures Study Class 3 Permit Modification, Mixed Waste Landfill, Sandia National Laboratories

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