Inter corporate asset sales provide a viable alternative to mergers and acquisitions to create shareholder value for both the buyer and seller companies. Intercorporate asset sales are defined as the sale of autonomous operational assets which does not entail a change in ownership control of the seller.Mergers and acquisitions research found greater value was created by cash funded transactions compared to equity funded transactions. Contrary to mergers and acquisitions, asset sale research found equity funded transactions created greater value compared to cash funded transactions. This research provides a deeper understanding of the effect the method of payment has on the value created when selling assets, enabling management of acquiring and divesting companies to realise their maximum value creation potential.The population consisted of intercorporate asset sale transactions announced and concluded for the 11 year period from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2011. The exact population was not known, therefore judgmental sampling was used to identify companies. Only companies listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange All Share Index were considered for qualifying asset sale transactions. In total 112 companies were reviewed for asset sales yielding 214 qualifying transactions which were divided in sub samples of 43 equity buyers, 68 cash buyers, 30 equity sellers and 73 cash sellers.Based on the event study methodology the short term metric of abnormal share price returns and the medium term metric of abnormal operating financial performance were used to calculate and compare the value created by equity and cash funded transactions. Both metrics concluded that equity funded asset sales created greater value compared to cash funded asset sales.Inferences were made between asset sales and mergers and acquisitions and the researcher concluded by proposing a model to optimise shareholder value. Based on the accounting performance of the buyer and the intrinsic value of the asset or target, the model is used to select the optimum combination of corporate activity and the method of payment to unlock the optimum shareholder value. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Les opérations de fusions et acquisitions constituent un élément central de l’économie de marché et parallèlement forment l’un des principaux vecteurs de la dynamique de nos structures industrielles. Notre thèse vise à apprécier de façon objective et scientifique l’impact des opérations de fusions et d’acquisitions sur la qualité de l’information comptable produite par les entreprises. Compte tenu de son importance pour les acteurs économiques, la qualité de l’information comptable est d’abord comprise comme la qualité des résultats publiés par l’entreprise. Trois principaux axes sont dégagés au sein de cette problématique, qui constitue les trois principaux chapitres de notre thèse. Notre travail s’appuie sur une base de données regroupant les opérations des fusions et acquisitions entre les entreprises cotées sur le marché américain de l’année 1986 à l’année 2013. Les principes de ces chapitres sont les suivantes. Nous montrons tout d’abord que les entreprises impliquées dans les opérations payées par une combinaison de titres et de liquidités, opération ayant connues un fort développement, ont un comportement en manière de gestion de résultat proche des entreprises payant uniquement en titres, et à ce jour seules documentées. Nous établissons ensuite que la gestion de résultat de ces entreprises ne se réduit pas à la seule gestion des compte d’”accruals ". Nous montrons que les entreprises mobilisent également d’autre techniques, soit des méthodes purement comptables au travers par rendre de choix de classification des items, soit des méthodes ayant un impact sur les conditions réelles d’exploitation, au travers par exemple de l’ajustement des dépenses de R&D. Des liens de substitution / complémentarité entre ces différentes formes de gestion des résultats sont mise à jour, et mise en perspective des choix de méthodes de paiement des opérations. L’impact de la gestion des résultats sur la performance des acquéreurs est également analysé. Nous établissons en particuliers que si un degré modéré de gestion des résultats pourrait avoir des conséquences positives en manière de la performance, un comportement agressif en matière de gestion des résultats conduisant à reconnaitre un impact négatif sur la performance. Cela étant, il semble que la richesse des actionnaires ne soit affectée que très marginalement par ces choix de gestion des résultats, ceci autant à court terme que à long terme. / The Merger and Acquisition (M&A) operations constitute a key element of market economy and meanwhile form one of the main vectors of the dynamics of the industrial structures. This thesis aims at analyzing the impact of M&A operations on acquiring firm’s accounting information quality. The accounting information quality shall be interpreted first of all, as the quality of earnings. Three main axes are emerged in this problematic and constitute three main chapters of this thesis. By observing all public M&A transactions on the U.S. market from the year 1986 to 2013, these three chapters provide following main contributions. First we find the acquiring firms that involved in the mixed payment acquisition have undergone notable development, have earnings management (EM) behaviors around acquisition years. However, prior study only documented a certain kind of behaviors of the 100% stock exchange acquirers. Plus, we indicate that the EM behavior of acquiring firm is not constraint to the accruals management (AM). We show that they are also likely to use many other ways, either accounting treatment through classification shifting, or real earnings management (REM) methods, for example through the budgetary adjustment of the R&D expenditures. A close link is found between the choice of EM methods and acquisition payment method. Moreover, a substitution / complementary effect is also noted between different forms of EM methods. The impact of these EM strategies on acquiring firm’s performance is also analyzed. A moderate way of EM has positive impact on future operating performance while a high degree of these EM behaviors bring a negative impact. Nonetheless, it seems that the shareholders' wealth is only marginally affected by the choice of EM methods, in the short term as well as the long term.

Researchers have consistently shown that a firms repurchase announcement is met with positive abnormal stock price return reactions. Open-market repurchases are extremely flexible, non-committal and non-punitive; thus, it is puzzling that the mere announcement of an open-market repurchase will likely increase a firms stock price. I propose to disentangle a firms choice to repurchase its stock to determine when a repurchase announcement is good news for shareholders and when the announcement is not. I find that the purpose of the repurchase announcement matters. At the announcement date, managers intention of avoiding dilution is significantly negative and enhancing shareholder value is significantly positive, as expected. However, more interesting results are observed at two-years and three-years post announcement where I show that counteracting dilution is not a good reason to conduct a repurchase and, although not as strongly negative, enhancing shareholder value does not bear out its announcement promise. Furthermore, I find that firms that repurchase their shares to finance an acquisition are well compensated for their efforts, especially in the long run. I attribute their success to higher cash flows resulting from reducing their tax burden with their amortization deduction of the goodwill created from the purchase accounting acquisition.

Topic of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) is popular both in academia and financial circles and press. A great deal of research has been focused on the value creation side of M&A deals, nonetheless factors influencing the particular method of payment used in M&A transactions are equally interesting. This thesis focuses on number of factors influencing the choice of medium of exchange in M&A deals with European Union domiciled bidders. Using Bayesian model averaging and a relatively new dataset of transactions announced between 2010 and 2018, the analysis finds several bidder, target and deal specific characteristics to be of a provable effect on the choice of payment. Finally, several enhancements and research questions for a further research are identified.

This doctoral thesis consists of three articles: one literature overview and two empirical articles. The first article provides a literature overview about industrial diversification, corporate acquisitions and the intersection of both research areas. This thesis secondly analyzes whether conglomerates invest externally differently from focused firms. This investigation provides new insights on the question how industrial diversification influences corporate investment. It allows to draw conclusions whether internal investment is independent from external investment in diversified firms, or whether weak internal investment in conglomerates is (at least partially) offset by more efficient external investment, or even whether value-destructive internal investment is accompanied by external investment eliciting the same effects. In this case weakly managed multi-segment firms could be also identified by their behavior and success in corporate acquisitions. Third, the thesis copes with the question how conglomerates are perceived and treated as potential targets of corporate acquisitions. This analysis adds further aspects to the question whether multi-segment firms are discounted due to their organizational form. Assuming that the sum of the single segment of a diversified company is higher valued than the conglomerate as a whole, one could expect that investors should strive to acquire such companies, to dismantle them subsequently in order to create additional value by reshaping these inefficiently composed entities. However, there are also contradicting effects of lower synergies and higher integration costs compared to the acquisition of stand alone firms. New insights in these discussions allow us to draw conclusions whether a diversification discount potentially being harvested by a bust up takeover outweighs lower synergies and higher integration costs.

This doctoral thesis consists of three articles: one literature overview and two empirical articles. The first article provides a literature overview about industrial diversification, corporate acquisitions and the intersection of both research areas. This thesis secondly analyzes whether conglomerates invest externally differently from focused firms. This investigation provides new insights on the question how industrial diversification influences corporate investment. It allows to draw conclusions whether internal investment is independent from external investment in diversified firms, or whether weak internal investment in conglomerates is (at least partially) offset by more efficient external investment, or even whether value-destructive internal investment is accompanied by external investment eliciting the same effects. In this case weakly managed multi-segment firms could be also identified by their behavior and success in corporate acquisitions. Third, the thesis copes with the question how conglomerates are perceived and treated as potential targets of corporate acquisitions. This analysis adds further aspects to the question whether multi-segment firms are discounted due to their organizational form. Assuming that the sum of the single segment of a diversified company is higher valued than the conglomerate as a whole, one could expect that investors should strive to acquire such companies, to dismantle them subsequently in order to create additional value by reshaping these inefficiently composed entities. However, there are also contradicting effects of lower synergies and higher integration costs compared to the acquisition of stand alone firms. New insights in these discussions allow us to draw conclusions whether a diversification discount potentially being harvested by a bust up takeover outweighs lower synergies and higher integration costs.:List of Tables … vi List of Figures … viii List of Abbreviations … ix List of Symbols … x Introduction … xiii I. Literature review … 1 1. Literature review about diversification and corporate transactions … 2 1.1. Introduction … 5 1.2. Impact of diversification … 7 1.2.1. Diversification and firm value … 8 1.2.2. Diversification and investment … 15 1.2.3. Diversification and further firm characteristics … 20 1.3. Corporate transactions … 29 1.3.1. Drivers of acquisitions … 29 1.3.2. Characteristics of acquisitions … 40 1.3.3. Impact of corporate transactions … 47 1.4. Intersection between diversification and transactions … 54 1.5. Conclusion … 56 II. Diversification and acquisitions … 74 2. Diversification and the likelihood of acquisitions … 75 2.1. Introduction … 78 2.2. Theoretical background … 81 2.2.1. Diversification and the likelihood of acquisitions … 81 2.2.2. Diversification and deal characteristics … 84 2.2.3. Diversification and deal performance … 86 2.3. Data and methodology … 87 2.4. Descriptive statistics … 91 2.5. Diversification and corporate transactions … 92 2.5.1. Diversification and transaction probability … 92 2.5.2. Diversification and deal characteristics … 95 2.5.3. Diversification and post-acquisition performance … 98 2.6. Conclusion … 100 III. Diversification and takeover likelihood … 109 3. Do acquirers of conglomerates benefit from the diversification discount? … 110 3.1. Introduction … 113 3.2. Theoretical background … 115 3.2.1. Corporate performance, diversification and takeover probability … 115 3.2.2. Entrenchment, diversification and takeover probability … 117 3.2.3. Synergies, integration costs and takeover probability … 119 3.2.4. Bid premiums and post-acquisition returns … 120 3.3. Data and methodology ... 123 3.4. Descriptive statistics … 127 3.4.1. Successful bids and diversification … 127 3.4.2. Bids and conglomerates: univariate analysis … 129 3.5. Diversification and the likelihood of being acquired … 130 3.6. Diversification and the bid premiums paid … 134 3.7. Diversification and the CAR of the acquirer … 138 3.8. Conclusion … 140

Ce travail de recherche est dédié à l’analyse des politiques de dividendes dans le contexte des fusions-acquisitions américaines. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse décrit le cadre de l’étude. Il présente le cadre théorique des politiques de dividendes, puis celui des fusions-acquisitions avant d’exposer les champs exploratoires relatifs aux spécificités des politiques de dividendes lors des opérations de fusions-acquisitions. Il traite, à la fin, une illustration d’une fusion américaine qui incarne un cas réel des interactions des politiques de dividendes lors des rapprochements des firmes. Le deuxième chapitre de la thèse explore empiriquement l’impact de la différence entre les politiques de dividendes des firmes fusionnées sur la politique de dividendes post-fusion, et teste un éventuel effet de compensation de la prime de fusion. Le troisième chapitre part de l’idée que la réaction négative du marché à l’annonce des acquisitions en titres de firmes cotées est l’issu de l’évaluation incorrecte de l’acquéreur. De ce fait, il explore un possible rôle informationnel de la politique de dividendes de l’acquéreur dans ce type d’opérations qui peut réduire l’asymétrie d’information sur la valorisation de l’acquéreur, et ainsi alléger la réaction négative du marché à l’annonce. Le quatrième chapitre étudie les caractéristiques financières des firmes fusionnées qui sont déterminantes de leurs politiques de dividendes. Au vu de cela, il suppose que la réussite de la fusion peut être affectée par la différence entre les politiques de dividendes des firmes fusionnées issue de la différence entre leurs caractéristiques. Les résultats de nos recherches prouvent l’effet de la divergence entre les politiques de dividendes des firmes fusionnées sur le déroulement de la fusion au moment et après la transaction. La principale contribution de cette thèse est donc d’illustrer l’importance de tenir compte des politiques de dividendes des firmes impliquées dans des opérations de fusions-acquisitions, afin de pouvoir prendre les bonnes décisions lors du rapprochement. La généralisation de l’effet de clientèle sur les firmes fusionnées permet de détecter des chocs de clientèles de dividendes, et de révéler la nécessité d’absorber ces chocs par certains termes transactionnels et par la conduite post-fusion de la firme combinée. / This research is dedicated to the analysis of dividend policy in the context of U.S. mergers and acquisitions. The first chapter of this thesis presents the framework of the study. It outlines the theoretical framework of the dividend policies and the mergers-acquisitions before stating exploratory fields related to the specificities and contributions of dividend policies in the M&A setting. Furthermore, it discusses an illustration of an US merger that embodies a real case of interactions between dividend policies during mergers-acquisitions. The second chapter empirically explores the impact of the difference between merging firms’ dividend policies on the post-merger dividend policy, and tests a probable compensation effect of the bid premium. The third chapter starts from the idea that the negative market reaction to the announcement of stock acquisitions of listed firms is derived from the acquirer’s misevaluation. Thereby, it explores the information content of the acquirer dividend policy in such deals which may reduce the information asymmetry on the acquirer valuation, and thus alleviate the negative market reaction at the announcement. The fourth chapter examines the financial characteristics of merging firms that are determining their existing dividend policies. In light of this, it assumes that the merger completion may be affected by the difference between merging firms’ dividend policies which are resulting from the difference between their characteristics. The findings of our research confirm the impact of the difference between the merging firms’ dividend policies on the conduct of the merger during and following the transaction. The main contribution of this thesis is to illustrate the importance of considering the dividend policies of companies involved in mergers-acquisitions in order to make the right decisions in favor of the reconciliation. The generalization of the clientele effect on the M&A setting allow to detect dividend clientele shocks, and reveal the need to absorb these shocks by transaction specifics and the post-merger conduct of the merged firm.

Dans le cadre général des regroupements d'entreprises et des groupes de sociétés, cette thèse porte sur des questions d'intérêt à la croisée de la comptabilité, du droit (notamment les dispositions légales et la réglementation comptable) et de la finance d'entreprise. En ce qui concerne la théorie comptable, le chapitre 2 étudie comment les chercheurs en économie d'entreprise ont compris les groupes d'entreprises, les comptes de groupe et le processus de leur préparation, en particulier par rapport aux juristes italiens. Ensuite, le chapitre 3 reconstruit le processus politique et législatif qui a engendré la naissance du concept de groupe de sociétés dans le corpus juridique italien.Concernant le droit et la politique comptable, une analyse comparative est effectuée au chapitre 4qui montre clairement l'évolution de la notion de contrôle et de son utilisation dans les comptes consolidés (comptes de groupe) et les regroupements d'entreprises (I) en droit européen, (II) selon les normes comptables internationales publiées par l'IASB (International Accounting Standards Board) et (III) par rapport aux principes comptables généralement admis aux États-Unis («USGAAP»). De plus, les chapitres 5 et 6 étudient les effets du lobbying sur les normes comptables concernant les états financiers consolidés et les regroupements d'entreprises publiés par l'IASB. Fait intéressant, les résultats concordent avec une forme de capture du normalisateur comptable international par une catégorie d'institutions financières. En effet, confrontées à un modèle de consolidation prétendument basé sur le contrôle, ces dernières ont plaidé en faveur d'une exception de consolidation fondée sur un modèle de propriété et documentée comme ayant été proposée par les sociétés d'audit américaines dans ce contexte au moins depuis 1995. Ce modèle s’avère avoir trouvé un terrain fertile au sein de l'IASB. En conséquence, d'autres catégories d'institutions financières,telles que les fonds d'investissement à long terme et ceux gérés par une famille tout en préférant un modèle de consolidation différent, ne sont plus autorisées à présenter des états financiers consolidés. En ce qui concerne la finance d’entreprise, le chapitre 7 analyse les implications de différentes décisions de financement dans un nouveau échantillon de fusions et acquisitions entre institutions financières (banques et assurances) consommées dans le monde entier au cours des deux dernières décennies. En particulier, il étudie (I) la relation entre la méthode de choix de paiement (si le prix est payé en cash, en actions ou une combinaison des deux) et le choix du mode de financement d'un regroupement d'entreprises (y compris les instruments hybrides) et (II) la réaction des investisseurs à l'annonce de la combinaison. En ce qui concerne ce dernier point, l'utilisation de deux tests non paramétriques permet de détecter une relation intéressante entre la réaction du marché à l'annonce et les différents modes attendus de financement de la transaction. / In the broad context of business combinations and group of companies, this thesis selects some matters of interest at the crossroad between accounting, law (especially legal provisions and accounting regulation) and corporate finance.Concerning accounting theory, chapter 2 studies how business economics scholars understood groups of companies, group accounts and the process for their preparation in particular compared to Italian legal scholars. Then, chapter 3 reconstructs the political and legislative process that brought about the birth of the concept of group of companies in the Italian legal corpus. Concerning law and accounting policy, a comparative analysis is carried out in chapter 4 which clearly shows how the notion of control and its use in consolidated financial statements (group accounts) and business combinations accounting evolved (I) in European law, (II) under international accounting standards as issued by the IASB – International Accounting StandardsBoard and (III) in US GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles). Moreover, chapters 5 and 6 investigate the effects of lobbying on accounting standards on consolidated financial statements and business combinations issued by the IASB. Interestingly, results are consistent with a regulatory capture of the international standard setter by a category of financial institutions. In fact, confronted with a consolidation model purportedly based on control, the latter lobbied in favour of a consolidation exception which is based on an ownership view and is documented to have been proposed by US audit companies in that context at least from 1995. That view found a fertile ground within the IASB. As a result, other categories of financial institutions such as long term investment funds and those run by a family preferring a different consolidation model are now prohibited from presenting consolidated financial statement. Concerning corporate finance, chapter 7 studies the implications of different financing decisions ina novel and comprehensive sample of cases of mergers and acquisitions across and between financial institutions (banks and insurances) consummated worldwide around almost the last twodecades. In particular, it investigates (I) the relationship between the method of payment choice (i.e. if the price is paid in cash, stock or a mixture of the two) and the choice regarding the mode offinancing a business combination (including hybrid instruments) and (II) investors’ reaction at the combination announcement. As to the latter point, the use of two non-parametric tests allows todetect an interesting relationship between the market reaction at announcement and the different expected modes of financing the transaction.

Cette thèse étudie le lien entre les caractéristiques des conseils d’administration des banques acquéreuseset la performance boursière à court terme de celles-ci, analysée grâce à la méthodologie d’étude d’événement.L’objectif étant de vérifier si la structure des conseils contribue à l’atténuation des conflits d’intérêts àl’occasion des opérations de fusions-acquisitions (F&A) et crée, par conséquent, de la valeur. Deux effets ontété mis en avant. Le premier suppose une influence directe de chacune des caractéristiques du conseil sur lesrendements anormaux de l’acquéreur ; tandis que le second, introduit l’effet médiateur de la prime de contrôlepayée, en considérant que la structure du conseil influence le pouvoir de négociation de ses membres et leurengagement dans l’intérêt des actionnaires. Pour ces deux effets, nous contrôlons certains déterminants de laperformance relatifs à la transaction et aux banques impliquées.Nos résultats indiquent que les marchés financiers ont des attentes vis-à-vis des conseils lors de cesopérations, car nous avons relevé une incidence favorable sur les rendements anormaux de la présence depersonnalités extérieures en proportion significative au conseil de l’acquéreur et de l’absence de dualité dedirection dans celui-ci. Par ailleurs, en contrôlant le choix de la méthode de paiement, nous avons égalementrelevé que l’utilisation du cash est fortement associé à des rendements positifs pour l’acquéreur. / This thesis analyzes the relationship between Board characteristics of acquiring Banks and short termStock Market reactions, measured with the Event Study Methodology. We examine if Board structure helps tolower conflict of interests during Mergers and Acquisitions, and creates Shareholder value. Two effects areanalysed. The first one supposes a direct influence of Board characteristics on the acquirer’s abnormal returns.The second one introduces a mediating effect of the premium, considering that Board structure affects itsmembers’ commitment. For both effects, we control some performance determinants relative to transactionand involved banks.Our results indicate that Financial Markets expect that Boards play an important role in acquisitions. Wefind a favourable impact of outside dominated Boards and the absence of duality on the acquirer's abnormalreturns. In addition, by controlling the method of payment, we obtain a significant and positive correlationbetween use of cash and acquirer's returns.