Has Merger and Acquisition been considered as a method of dealing with weak banks? Evidence from the third bank restructuring process in Vietnam

Abstract

In the third bank restructuring process in Vietnam during the 2011–2016 period, banking system experienced the participation of 14 commercial banks with 7 successful, both mandatory and voluntary, M&A deals. This research tries to answer if M&A was a good method of dealing with weak banks as Vietnam expected. Firstly, the article evaluates M&A activities’ effects on business results of acquiring banks through three financial ratios (including return on asset (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and net interest margin (NIM) by using paired sample T-Test. The results show that M&A activities only have positive effects on ROA of acquiring banks in Vietnam, while impacts of M&A activities on ROE and NIM are not clear. Secondly, by using a fuzzy TOPSIS approach based on Balanced Scorecard, the research shows that the performance of acquiring banks in mandatory M&A deals are not good as compared to the other acquiring banks. In fact, M&A deal only has strongly positive effects on acquiring bank performance, when it is totally based on real demands of both target and acquiring banks as well as created synergy. Therefore, to deal with weak banks in the next time period, Vietnamese banking system should focus on other market solutions in addition to keeping the nature of M&A activities and improving its efficiency.