Cross-border mergers and acquisitions and the role of trade costs

Cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have increased dramatically over the last two decades. This paper analyses the role of trade costs in explaining the increase in the number of cross-border M&As. In particular, we distinguish horizontal and non-horizontal M&As and investigate whether trade costs affect these two types of mergers differently. We analyse this question using industry data for 23 OECD countries for the period 1990-2001. Our findings suggest that while in the aggregate trade costs affect cross-border merger activity negatively its impact differs importantly across horizontal and non-horizontal mergers. The impact of trade costs is less negative for horizontal mergers, which is consistent with the tariff-jumping argument.     

Economic integration and the profitability of cross-border mergers and acquisitions

The 1990s was a decade of increased economic integration. The decade also witnessed a sharp increase in cross-border mergers and acquisitions. From a theoretical perspective, the increase in international mergers in more integrated economies is rather puzzling. It is a well-established result that due to the “business stealing effect”, mergers in integrated markets are not likely to be profitable. A reasonable conjecture would therefore be that closer integration of markets would reduce the attractiveness of cross-border mergers and acquisitions. The present paper demonstrates that this is not necessarily the case: Economic integration may trigger cross-border acquisitions by reducing the business stealing effect and by reducing the reservation price of the target firm. The paper thus provides explanations to the observed increase in cross-border mergers in a world of more integrated economies.     

Cross-border mergers and strategic alliances

This paper develops a model with distribution costs to study firm cooperation in forming strategic alliances and mergers, under different types of foreign market entry modes, that is, export or foreign direct investment (FDI). Under both export and FDI, we find that cross-border alliances (mergers) dominate domestic alliances (mergers); and cross-border alliances and mergers are preferred to independence if and only if distribution cost is high. Under export, cross-border alliances are chosen in equilibrium if distribution cost is high. Under FDI and with high distribution cost, cross-border alliances (mergers) are chosen in equilibrium if plant setup cost is low (high).     

Integrated delivery systems: mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions are usually the way an IDS is built. The CNO and/or CNOs/DONs have an integral role in the resolution of the M/A process. During this time of significant change, during which there may even be chaos, the CNOs work to maintain stability so there is as little impact as possible on patient outcomes, a core responsibility of the CNOs. The CNOs should focus on identifying and working with the highly skilled individuals in the organization to get to the recovery stage of the M/A process, at which time a high-performing organization is achieved. To build this new organization or IDS, the old organizations of the M/A must be changed (Moss Kanter, 1994). The successful CNOs will manage the trade-offs and will become experts in collaboration. The CNO's goals are to maximize the quality of patient care, the professional satisfaction of the nurse, and the goals of achieving cost effectiveness for the system (Clifford, 1998), and keeping this focus through the M/A process will yield success.     

Cross-border mergers in a mixed oligopoly

This paper identifies the unique strategic issues of cross-border mergers in a mixed oligopoly showing that the presence of a welfare maximizing public firm increases the incentive for such mergers. The well-known merger paradox that two-firm mergers are rarely profitable is substantially relaxed in the cases of both linear and convex production costs. The ability to identify profitable two-firm mergers in this context takes on added importance as the recent cross-border merger wave often involved industries with public firms.     

Globalization and profitability of cross-border mergers and acquisitions

This paper studies how the surplus generated by the globalization process is divided between MNEs and owners of domestic assets. We construct an oligopoly model where the equilibrium acquisition pattern, the acquisition price and firms’ greenfield investments are endogenously determined. Acquisition entry is shown to be more likely when the complementarity between domestic and foreign assets is high. However, we show that such acquisitions might have a low profitability, since the bidding competition over the domestic assets is then so fierce that the firms involved would be better off not starting a bidding war. Risks associated with different entry modes are also examined.     

Cross-border mergers in vertically related industries

We construct a tractable model of an oligopolistic industry that allows us to capture the role of the vertical structure in the incentives for and implications of cross-border horizontal mergers. We show that vertical integration can increase the gains from cross-border mergers. We also demonstrate how market concentration interacts with costs in the decision of a relatively efficient foreign firm located in one country (source) to merge with a disintegrated or an integrated firm in another country (target) when the industry is vertically related. Absent any merger incentives in an autarkic equilibrium, we demonstrate that vertical integration can raise the incentives for diversification in production and add to the gains from cross-border horizontal mergers. Any additional gain from cross-border horizontal mergers, due to the existence of a vertically integrated production structure, is shown to be sensitive to the relative market concentration across countries. Cross-border mergers will be triggered by a relatively cost-efficient source taking over a disintegrated target when pre-merger competition among the disintegrated firms is relatively intense but, otherwise, the initial target will be a vertically integrated firm.     

Cross-border acquisitions: the UK experience

This paper tests a composite empirical model of cross-border acquisitions involving UK firms between 1987–1995 using panel data analysis. The empirical model includes capital market variables and regulatory variables derived from the existing literature. The results show that models that explain cross-border acquisitions through capital market imperfections are not significant. Cross-border activity has a strong relationship with the level of the UK stock market suggesting that crossborder acquisitions are, in some part, an extension of domestic activity. Corporate tax differentials also have significant impact on activity.     

Analysing the employment effects of mergers and acquisitions

This paper examines the employment effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by using matched establishment-level data from Finland. Our data register practically almost all M&As in all sectors. We compare the employment effects of cross-border M&As with the effects arising from two different types of domestic M&As and internal restructurings. The results show that cross-border M&As lead to downsizing in manufacturing employment. The effects of cross-border M&As on employment in non-manufacturing are much weaker. Changes in ownership associated with domestic M&As and internal restructurings also typically cause employment losses, but they exhibit an interesting sectoral variation.     

Acquiring nanotechnology capabilities: role of mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are an important but unstudied aspect of nanotechnology's evolution. This paper uses case review and bibliometric analysis to examine 20 M&As involving acquired firms in the nanotechnology domain. The guiding proposition is that acquired firms provide complementarities to the acquiring firms. Key measures given consideration include the nature of the post-acquisition organisation, whether the pre-acquisition geographic location is retained, the purpose of the acquisitions as indicated in news releases, and the extent of similarity in research publications and patents. Differences by the country of the acquiring firm and sub-industry are noted. Within the limitations of the case study approach, the results suggest that acquired firms in the nanotechnology domain provide complementary capabilities to their acquirers.     

The effect of heterogeneous beliefs on mergers and acquisitions

This article investigates the effect of heterogeneous beliefs on firms’ mergers and acquisitions (M&A) decisions. Using data of China’s financial market, which is featured with great heterogeneity of belief, we find that heterogeneous beliefs are positively associated with the occurrence of M&A transactions, and firms with greater heterogeneous beliefs are more likely to pay the transactions with stock. Moreover, we show that government intervention, measured by state ownership, weakens the effect of heterogeneous beliefs on firms’ M&A decisions.     

企业并购能否抑制经济“脱实向虚”——基于产业优化发展的视角

近年来,我国经济面临着严峻的“脱实向虚”问题,微观层面表现为实体企业金融化现象日益凸显,不仅影响我国经济的高质量发展,而且导致金融领域的风险集聚。因此如何抑制经济“脱实向虚”一直受到社会各界的广泛关注。本文以2009—2018年中国沪深A股非金融类、非房地产类上市公司为样本,采用倾向性得分匹配双重差分法,从产业优化发展的视角出发,实证检验企业并购对实体企业金融化的抑制影响及作用机制,并采用三重差分法检验境内并购和海外并购对于实体企业金融化抑制作用的差异。研究发现：企业并购对于企业的短期金融化行为和长期金融化行为均有抑制作用,且海外并购的抑制作用更强;境内并购主要通过“规模经济和范围经济效应”和“产业链协同互补效应”抑制企业金融化,海外并购主要通过“产业链协同互补效应”和“技术协同效应”抑制企业金融化。本文研究表明企业并购可以通过促进产业的健康可持续发展,提升产业对资本的吸引力,从而从根本上治理经济“脱实向虚”问题。     

Cross-border acquisitions and taxes: efficiency and tax revenues

Abstract .  We develop a theoretical oligopoly model to study how international differences in profit and capital gains taxes affect foreign acquisitions. Reductions in foreign profit taxes tend to trigger inefficient foreign acquisitions, while reductions in foreign capital gains taxes may trigger efficient foreign acquisitions. Foreign acquisitions can increase domestic tax revenues even when profit taxes are evaded. The reason is that bidding competition between foreign firms ensures that all benefits from the acquisition, including tax advantages, are captured by a domestic seller paying capital gains taxes. Tax code issues, such as the treatment of goodwill, are shown to affect the pattern of foreign acquisitions.     

Economic policy uncertainty and mergers and acquisitions: Evidence from China

This study examines the relationship between economic policy uncertainty and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) in China. Using all listed Chinese companies on the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges as well as 4188 ​M&A deals from the period of 2001–2018, we show that Chinese firms are more likely to make acquisitions during periods of high economic policy uncertainty, which contradicts the behavior of US firms. We further show that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are less likely than non-SOEs to make acquisitions during periods of high economic policy uncertainty. SOEs are less likely to use only cash for their acquisitions during periods of high economic policy uncertainty. These results indicate the prudence of SOEs regarding acquisitions relative to non-SOEs during periods of high economic policy uncertainty. Moreover, acquisitions during periods of high economic policy uncertainty are associated with an increase in shareholder wealth for acquirers, and this wealth effect is more pronounced for SOEs.     

过度自信理论在中国公司并购中的应用——文献综述与评述

心理学家们发现公司管理者存在过度自信的心理特征,并且这种心理特征在公司并购决策中常具有一定的影响力。首先,过度自信这一心理特征普遍存在于公司管理者之中。其次,通过对国内外相关文献的总结,分析了过度自信理论在中国公司并购中应用的现状与特点,并且认为在中国运用过度自信理论解释公司并购活动是必要的。最后,提出了今后的研究思路、研究方法和研究难点,希望为今后研究中国公司并购活动提供理论指导。     

The effects of mergers and acquisitions on the firm size distribution

This paper provides new empirical evidence on the effects of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) on the shape of the firm size distribution, by using data of the population of manufacturing firms in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows that M&As do not affect the size distribution when we consider the entire population of firms. When we focus on the firms involved in an M&A event, we observe a shift of the firm size distribution towards larger sizes. Firm size distribution becomes more concentrated around the mean, less skewed to the right hand side, and thinner at the tails as a whole. The shift toward higher sizes due to M&A is not uniform but affects firms of different sizes in different ways. While the number of firms in the lower tail decreased, the number of firms in the central size classes increased substantially and outweighed the increase in the number (and mean size) of firms in the upper tail of the distribution (consequently the overall market concentration measured by the Herfindahl index declines). M&As lead to a departure from log-normality of the firm size distribution, suggesting that external growth does not follow Gibrat’s law. Our counterfactual analysis highlights that only internal growth does not affect the shape of the size distribution of firms. On the contrary, it suggests that the change in the size distribution is almost entirely due to the external growth of the firms.

Defying gravity: The determinants of China's outbound mergers and acquisitions

We find that the determinants of China's outbound M&As depart dramatically from the literature. First, China's M&A volume with a target country is not affected by geographic distance, currency appreciation, or stock market return. Second, Chinese acquirers pick an unconventional uphill battle by primarily targeting countries with greater cultural distance, stronger investor protection laws, and higher per capita income. We also document that China's outbound M&As have a higher than normal percentage of deals being partial acquisitions. We argue that emerging markets can differ remarkably from developed countries in the considerations and modes of outbound M&As.     

Cross-border acquisitions from developing countries under decreasing returns to scale

Portuguese Economic Journal - We assume that a firm from a developing country wants to acquire a firm from a developed country with better technology. The acquirer, which may be a private firm or a...     

Import to invest: Impact of cultural goods on cross-border mergers and acquisitions

Existing studies have demonstrated the necessities of formal institutions and negativity of cultural distance in international investments. Surprisingly, China’s exponential increase of cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and its low-quality institutions and distinct cultural norms contradict these studies. This paper aims to tackle this puzzle by examining the role of cultural imports in cross-border M&As. Our empirical evidence suggests that the trade of cultural goods significantly increases the volume and realized economic gains of M&As from importing to exporting countries. Our results are robust to alternative measures and an instrumental variable approach. On exploring potential channels, we find that imported cultural goods could drive cultural convergence between countries and also mitigate the adverse effect of cultural distance on merger outcomes. We further show that cultural imports could help firms in overcoming contractual barriers at target countries. This paper provides practical implications for cross-border investments in the current world with intensified cultural conflicts.     

The impact of mergers and acquisitions on company employment in the United Kingdom

This paper provides a systematic empirical analysis of the effects of take-over and merger activity on firm employment in the United Kingdom using a specially constructed database for the period 1967-1996. Our results indicate that significant rationalisations in the use of labour occur as firms reduce joint output and increase efficiency post-merger. These effects are particularly pronounced in the case of related and especially hostile mergers.