This thesis examines the performance of serial acquirers in the Nordic market between 2006-2016. We investigate how serial acquirers perform in the short-term and long-term and if serial acquirers are affected by hubris, or if they learn by experience. The payment method is examined to determine if cash-financed deals outperform equity-financed deals. The short-term performance study is measured by the Cumulative Abnormal Return (CAR) and the long-term performance study is measured by the Calendar-Time Portfolio (CTP) combined with the Fama-French Four-Factor model. The main findings show that serial acquirers underperform relative to single acquirers only in the short term. No significant results are found for the hubris and learning hypotheses. In addition, we find that acquirer size and the deal size have a significant effect on the short-term post-M&A performance.

Denna uppsats undersöker huruvida tillväxtföretag genererar en abnormal avkastning i samband med annonsering av ett förvärv. Studien genomför en händelsestudie där 30 noterade företag på Stockholmsbörsen har blivit utvalda genom olika urvalskriterier, till exempel köpeskilling och typ av företag. Vad som klassificerar ett tillväxtföretag kan skilja sig, men denna uppsats har med grund i teorin valt ut två olika finansiella nyckeltal, price-to-book och price-to-sales. Nyckeltalen för de enskilda företagen skall vara större eller minst lika med medianen på den tillväxtorienterade aktielistan Spotlight. Teorier som den effektiva marknadshypotesen, hybrishypotesen samt teorier om varför företag genomför förvärv tas upp och diskuteras. Uppsatsen diskuterar även informationsasymmetri och informationsläckage.Studiens resultat visar att urvalet vid annonseringsdagen genererar en genomsnittlig abnormal avkastning som är positiv, både när marknadsmodellen och constant mean return-modellen används. Urvalet innehåller uteliggare, därav kompletteras medelvärdet med medianen. Resultat för medianen påvisar en positiv abnormal avkastning. Resultatet pekar på att marknaden i genomsnitt är optimistiska till att tillväxtföretag genomför förvärv på kort sikt. / The study examines whether growth companies generate an abnormal return in relation to an announcement of an acquisition. The study conducts an event study where 30 listed companies on the Stockholm Stock Exchange have been selected through various selection criteria, such as purchase price and type of company. How one should classify a growth company differs, but based on the theory, this study has selected two financial key ratios, price-to-book and price-to-sales. The key ratios for the individual company must be greater than or at least equal to the median on the growth-oriented share list Spotlight.Theories such as the efficient market hypothesis, the hubris hypothesis, and theories about why companies make acquisitions are discussed. The study also discusses information asymmetry and leakage of information.The results of the study show that the sample at the day of announcement generates a positive average abnormal return both when the market model and when the constant mean return model are used. The study was affected by outliers, and which the mean was supplemented by the median, where the result showed a positive abnormal return. The results also indicate that the market is on average optimistic to growth companies making acquisitions in short term.

生存、獲利以及成長是企業的目標。第二次世界大戰之後，國際性的商業活動快速的成長，隨著全球商業活動自由化、國際化，加上資訊科技的興起，市場全球化與生產全球化為企業創造了機會，也使得企業面臨的競爭環境日趨嚴峻，企業面臨來自全球的挑戰，威脅其生存與獲利。在競爭環境的迅速變動下，企業為了追求永續經營，不斷的成長成為企業生存之必要條件。購併是企業追求快速成長的捷徑之一。 雖然購併能夠幫助企業迅速取得所需要的關鍵資源，但是從所收集的資料顯示，失敗的購併案例還是佔了七成之多，可見成功的購併是一件相當不容易的事。 本研究所描述的個案企業是目前世界上歷史最悠久的化學與製藥公司，公司成立的日期可以回溯到西元1668年。以購併取得所需要的關鍵資源在該企業是常見的作法，所以該企業透過經驗的累積發展出購併相關活動的標準作業程序（SOP）。但是即使已經有豐富的購併經驗，並不是每一件購併案都能夠達成原先所設定的目標。 本研究希望透過研究實際購併案例的啟動購併動機與後續整合行動以印證相關購併理論，並且整理歸納出成功的購併案例中值得學習的作法以及失敗的購併案例中為何失敗的地方以供未來想要採取購併方式的企業作為參考。 歸納個案企業的購併案例得到以下結論。企業選擇購併作為成長方式的動機是為了達成綜效理論中所提及的啟動綜效、營運綜效和市場綜效。至於後續整合行動，在事前必須要有清楚的整合計畫、工作小組、組織架構與人事布局；然後透過即時且透明的溝通管道傳達給每一位員工；並且強化人力資源管理系統讓不管原本是屬於購併公司的員工還是被購併進來的員工都能夠清楚的瞭解自己在購併後的新組織中可能的職涯發展，協助所有員工穩定下來以渡過整合變動期。 / Survive, gain and grow are the targets for all companies. Business environment has been changed and globalization is the mainstream for all business activities after World War II. This change creates opportunities but also bring threats to companies. Companies now have to face challenges from all over the world. Keep growing is the means for companies to keep survival from these challenges. Merger and acquisition（M&A）is one of the shortcuts for companies to pursue fast growth. M&A can help companies to get key resources quickly. However, the chance to get fail is extremely high up to 70% from collected research data. Apparently it is not easy to have a success M&A case. This paper is describing a more than 300 years old pharmaceutical company whom accumulates a lot of experiences in M&A cases from company history. These M&A cases will be analyzed to prove related theories. Key successful factors will also be concluded for companies who will choose M&A as their growth alternative for reference. To sum up illustrated M&A cases, the motivation of a company to trigger M&A is aiming for starting synergy, operating synergy and market synergy. To ensure post-merger integration can proceed smoothly, it requires clear integration plan which contains dedicated task forces for execution, well-thought-out organization structure and important position appointment. Reinforce personnel system to ensure its function can provide necessary and sufficient assistance to all employees timely. Transparent and open communication channels shall be established in order to eliminate insecure atmosphere.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are a popular way of growing a company. This is challenged by previous research that shows that an M&A-transaction generally harms the financial key metrics of the acquiring company. The main focus of this report is to examine if there is an effect on financial ratios for Scandinavian companies partaking in an M&A as an acquirer. The effect is captured by the movements in the key metrics return on equity (ROE), return on assets (ROA), return on invested capital (ROIC), EBIT-margin. In addition, both ESG-ranking and underlying non-financial values, like if the deal was domestic or not, the age of the executives and board gender diversity, are looked at for a better understanding of what differences there are between the performance of M&As.  A database of Scandinavian companies acting within Europe was created containing the specific deal characteristics over a period of three years prior as well as three years after the deal. The statistical methods used to analyze this data were Wilcoxon signed-rank test, bivariate Pearson Correlation and Independent Samples t-test. The generated results in the aggregated dataset showed a negative performance of ROE and ROIC in the period after the deal, compared to the period prior to the deal. This result was also seen in the sub-set of foreign deals with an additional negative performance of ROA for the acquirer while the sub-set of domestic deals did not show any significant negative performance in the period after the deal. We found that it was not possible to analyze the post-period effect on ESG-ranking as the data for our included companies was too scarce. Our findings suggest, when looking at our certain key metrics, that M&A-transactions are not economically justified and that executives might be partially motivated by something other than economic performance when deciding upon an M&A. It is furthermore possible to conclude that the disclosing of ESG data has not been a priority for companies in the past and continues to be ignored by the masses which makes it difficult to progress academically in this field.