The Impact of the Financial Crisis on the Performance of European Acquisitions

Abstract

Shareholder wealth accretion is difficult to predict under most circumstances (Doukas and Kan, 2006; Cartwright and Schoenberg, 2006) and it can become a herculean task when cast under the shadows of a financial crisis (Mody and Negishi, 2000). In this chapter, we examine the role of a supranational institution like the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) on the value creation ability of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) for investors during the financial turmoil. We look at European acquisitions undertaken before and after the 2007--8 financial crisis to ascertain short-term shareholder returns. The majority of earlier studies either look at domestic versus international aspects of M&A deals without paying attention to the regional and supranational arrangements integrating different countries, or they have examined the performance of M&A deals during `normal' times, which leaves out the effects of financial instability or economic recession within and across a political or economic union as a question yet to be answered.