Ex-post Analysis of Mobile Telecom Mergers: The Case of Austria and The Netherlands

Recently there has been an increased attention towards the ex-post evaluation of competition policy enforcement decisions and in particular merger decisions. In this paper we study the effects of two mobile telecommunication mergers on prices. We apply a standard difference-in-differences approach which is widely used in the literature on ex-post evaluation of mergers. For the Austrian T-Mobile/tele.ring merger, we conclude that after the acquisition (for which remedies were imposed) prices in Austria did not increase relative to the considered control countries. For the Dutch T-Mobile/Orange merger, we observe an increase in the mobile tariff prices in the Netherlands in the analysed period, relative to the control countries. We cannot firmly establish whether this price increase was exclusively caused by the T-Mobile/Orange merger or in part by possible price effects brought about by the KPN/Telfort merger consummated two years earlier in the Netherlands. However, we believe that such price increase could be linked to the structural changes brought by both KPN/Telfort and T-Mobile/Orange mergers together.     

Endogenous Efficiency Gains from Mergers

This article analyzes endogenous efficiency gains from mergers. It considers oligopolistic homogeneous good markets and duopolistic and triopolistic markets under product differentiation (PD) (quantity and price competition). In a two‐stage game, firms invest in cost‐reducing innovation (with and without mergers) and then compete in output/prices. It is found that in homogeneous good markets, all possible mergers generate efficiency gains, and that these are most significant when R&D spillovers are very low or very high. Efficiency gains increase with the number of insiders and generally decrease with the number of outsiders. With PD, in most cases, the merger generates efficiency gains when spillovers and/or PD are sufficiently high. With PD, efficiency gains increase with spillovers, but may increase or decrease with the level of PD. The implications of the results for the relationship between competition and innovation outputs and for merger policy are discussed.     

Productivity Growth and Some of Its Determinants in the Deregulated U.S. Railroad Industry

This study analyzes the effects of an important postderegulation innovation on rail freight productivity: the elimination of cabooses and related crew members. It also analyzes the overall growth of productivity in rail freight between 1983 and 1997 (using a translog rail cost function estimated over a sample of Class I railroads between 1983 and 1997). The results indicate that elimination of cabooses and associated crew members from freight trains reduced costs by 5-8% on the typical Class I railroad in 1997, equivalent to an annual cost saving of $2 billion to $3.3 billion for all Class I railroads. Moreover, if Class I railroads had no other technological advances since 1983, their 1997 costs (with 1997 factor prices) would have been 36-43% higher than they in fact were. Finally, the results show that overall productivity growth in rail freight did not decelerate between 1983 and 1997; if anything, it accelerated slightly.     

Profitable Mergers in a Cournot Model of Spatial Competition

This paper investigates the profitability and locational effects of mergers when Cournot firms compete in spatially differentiated markets. A two-firm merger is generally profitable because the merged partners can coordinate their location decisions. The merged firm locates its plants outside the market quartiles with distance from the market center being an increasing function of the number of nonmerged firms remaining at the market center. Profitable two-firm mergers reduce competitive pressure, leading to higher prices and reduced consumer surplus. The merger increases total surplus by increased locational efficiency and the increased profits of the merged and nonmerged firms.     

The long-term impact of mergers and the emergence of a merger wave in pre-World-War I Germany

Using annual data on mergers for 35 leading German companies from 1870 to 1913, my study tries to explain the first merger wave that emerged 1898. My panel probit model that accounted for economies of scale, macroeconomic conditions, success of former mergers, and market structure revealed that previous mergers made subsequent mergers more likely. The propensity to merge was higher for larger companies that increased their market power. In the banking industry, managers imitated mergers, although these mergers were not successful, and hence followed the minimax regret principle. Rational information-based herding caused the serial dependency of mergers in other industries.     

Value creating mergers: British bank consolidation, 1885–1925

The British banking sector had many small banks in the mid-nineteenth century. From around 1885 until the end of World War One there was a process of increasingly larger mergers between banks. By the end of the merger wave the English and Welsh market was highly concentrated, with only five major banks. News of a merger brought a persistent rise in the share prices of both the acquiring and the target bank (roughly 1% and 7%, respectively). Non-merging banks, especially those whose local market concentration rose because of the merger, saw their stock prices rise. Our findings suggest that the process of bank consolidation increased collusive behavior among merged banks, to the likely detriment of the consumer.     

不完全信息下跨国兼并模型分析

本文主要通过对不完全信息跨国兼并模型的分析,发现如果没有政府干预,外国企业只要具有成本上的优势,跨国兼并的发生是不可避免的。其中不完全信息并不是市场实现兼并的障碍,而政府在维护、平衡市场兼并效率和社会福利的关系方面中扮演着重要角色。     

浅谈汽车制造业并购财务风险及防范

成功的汽车制造业并购能使并购企业迅速壮大企业规模,提高市场占有率和竞争力。但在并购过程中,不可避免地要面临各种财务风险,主要表现在并购目标企业的价值评估风险、融资风险、资金使用风险和财务整合风险。要保证并购的成功和并购完成后达到预期的经营效果,必须对这些财务风险进行有效的规避和防范,主要措施包括充分获取并购方信息制订合理并购价值、选择合理的融资方式、谨慎利用资金防范资金使用风险以及加强资金使用效率降低整合风险等方面。上汽并购双龙汽车的案例体现了并购财务风险的成因,而对于如何规避也给出了有益的启示。     

我国汽车企业国际并购中的风险关注

我国汽车企业在国际竞争中实施了国际并购战略,以实现技术资源、人才资源和市场资源的有效整合和快速利用。在国际并购中,我国汽车企业面临着法律制度、企业伦理、管理文化、市场区域等多方面的并购风险。为此,对汽车企业国际并购中的并购动因和种类、并购风险的成因和种类进行了分析,提出了我国汽车企业的国际并购中针对风险应对的建议和措施。     

Abnormal Accruals and Managerial Intent: Evidence from the Timing of Merger Announcements and Completions

We examine acquiring managers' opportunistic reporting behavior around stock‐for‐stock acquisitions. Using the timing of merger announcements and completions to infer managerial intent, we show that acquirers with the most inflated earnings tend to announce mergers on Fridays, and that they manage earnings several quarters before the merger announcement date. Friday announcers exhibit a stronger negative association between pre‐merger announcement abnormal accruals and post‐merger announcement market performance than non‐Friday announcers. This effect is driven mainly by mergers that are completed relatively quickly after they are announced. Overall, the evidence supports the notion that some acquiring managers inflate earnings prior to announcing the mergers, and time the merger announcements to exploit investor inattention.     

跨国公司在华并购与隐性垄断

在当前全球化浪潮中,跨国并购已成为跨国投资的主要方式,更是我国今后引资的重要趋势。然而这种不同性质的多种资本主体并存于中国市场的特质将直接决定彼此的生存空间和获利机会,并最终决定投资的绩效和宏观经济稳定性。分析跨国公司进入中国市场的方式和在中国市场上进行竞争的手段,并从品牌、技术和币场占有率三个方面考察跨国并购对我国市场结构的影响,可以得出已经形成隐性垄断的结论,相应地从企业和政府两个层面提出对跨国并购实施竞争规制的应对策略。     

The cost of railroad regulation: the disintegration of American agricultural markets in the interwar period

This article investigates the costs of transport regulation using the example of agricultural markets in the US. Using a large database of prices by state of agricultural commodities, we find that dispersion fell for many commodities until the First World War. We demonstrate that this reflected changes in transport costs which in turn in the long run depended on productivity growth in railroads. The year 1920 marked a change in this relationship, however, and between the First and Second World Wars we find considerable disintegration of agricultural markets, ultimately as a consequence of the 1920 Transportation Act. We argue that this benefited railroad companies in the 1920s and workers in the 1930s, and we put forward an estimate of the welfare losses for the consumers of railroad services (that is, agricultural producers and final consumers).     

Price Effects of Dutch Hospital Mergers: An Ex-post Assessment of Hip Surgery

This study analyses price effects of six mergers in the Dutch healthcare industry. We investigate whether the merging hospitals raised their prices for hip surgery after the merger and, if so, how patients react to this higher price. For seven of the twelve hospitals involved, we found a statistically significant price increase for hip surgery, for three hospitals we found a significant price decrease. There is no clear relationship between price changes of hip surgery and changes in travelling behaviour of patients post merger.     

上市公司兼并的方式及其利益流动研究

随着我国资本市场的兴起和发展,作为资本市场重要组成部分的兼并行为越来越活跃,呈现出来的方式也多种多样。兼并过程通常伴随着相关各方之间的利益流动,但是,这种利益流动并不平衡,流通股股东和债权人的利益不能得到保护,兼并机制存在诸多问题。本文试图在对兼并收益进行深入分析的基础之上,对兼并的方式进行分类,并通过案例揭示各种兼并方式的特点,并阐释我国目前兼并过程中的利益流动的问题。然后针对兼并中存在的问题,试图提出一些有益的措施。     

加拿大并购反垄断审查中的效率因素分析——以Hillsdown Holdings并购案为例

加拿大反垄断当局对并购进行反垄断控制的法律依据是《竞争法》和《并购实施指南》,其并购反垄断控制政策要求并购可能带来的效率在加拿大境内实现的部分能够补偿该项并购给加拿大生产者和消费者带来的福利净损失,并对能够纳入反垄断当局评估分析的效率因素进行详细界定。由于效率难以观察和证实,在早期的司法实践中,效率因素对于竞争管理局的并购评估审查判定影响有限。20世纪90年代以后,加拿大反垄断当局对于效率的态度逐步趋于友好,效率因素对于反垄断当局最终判定的影响越来越大。     

A measure of the synergy in mergers under a competitive market for corporate control

Summary and Conclusion This note developed a possible measure of the anticipated synergy in mergers under the assumption that the market for corporate control is competitive. By applying Tobin'sq theory of investment, a measure which is composed of three potentially measurable variables is derived. The three variables are: the acquisition premium paid by he buying firm, the market value, and the replacement costs of the target firm. This measure may be utilized to do empirical studies involving the synergy in mergers regardless of the type of the merger and the source of the synergy. When the market for corporate control is not necessarily competitive, the inequality version of the measure gives the lower bound of the anticipated synergy and upper bound of the premium. In the special case of conglomerate mergers where economies of scope is the only source of synergy, the measure may also be interpreted as the present value of the anticipated economies of scope.     

Let’s Not Stick Together: Anticipation of Cartel and Merger Control in The Netherlands

Does enforcement action by the Netherlands Competition Authority (NMa) in the case of cartels and mergers produce an anticipatory effect? We use surveys among firms and their advisers to test whether merger plans that may fail to gain clearance from the NMa are not notified and whether the possibility of detection helps to reduce the number of cartels. Our results indicate that enforcement action by the NMa has a preventive effect. Surveys among companies show that 5 % of the notified mergers were modified before notification to forestall possible objections from the NMa. Moreover, for every 100 notifications of mergers there are 13 proposed mergers that are later on abandoned due to merger control. Companies also take account of the Competition Act when drafting contracts, conducting negotiations and holding meetings. Our survey among lawyers and other advisers shows that for every sanction decision taken by the NMa there are almost 5 cases in which, unbeknown to the NMa, a prohibited act has been terminated or modified in response to advice on competition law.     

企业战略并购中的杠杆融资

在当前国际金融危机的形势下,国际资金市场流动性紧缺,资产价格大幅缩水,给国内企业并购资产带来了机遇,而采用杠杆融资不仅能迅速筹措到资金,而且还可以降低收购成本,迅速扩大企业规模,促进产业结构调整和优化升级.本文通过分析国内外杠杆融资的发展状况、主要特点、运作模式,提出了国内大企业应借鉴国际杠杆融资并购的成功经验,以国家刚出台的支持并购贷款的相关政策为切入点,充分运用杠杆融资的运作模式,推动企业实现战略性重组的发展思路.     

Determinants of cross-border merger premia

Firms have a broad range of rationales for engaging in cross-border mergers and other forms of foreign direct investment (FDI); while some companies are in search of the cost advantages provided by foreign resources, other firms are primarily interested in gaining access to new markets. Although a significant amount of research has explored the patterns of FDI, little work has been done to assess what influences the value of cross-border mergers and, in particular, what determines why some cross-border mergers are expected to result in higher synergies when compared to others. This paper explores what characteristics of a merger are expected to increase the synergies that a firm will accrue from a cross-border merger by testing how a variety of factors impact the premia paid to effectuate a cross-border merger. We find that firms are willing to pay a higher premium to obtain greater control over foreign firms, and that this control is even more important in mergers involving firms in emerging markets. We also find that the factors affecting deal premia in cross-border mergers differ based on whether the acquirer has a high or low intangible asset intensity level.