The primary objective of this thesis is to investigate the value implications of the mergers and acquisitions deals initiated by the firms from the CEE region. We examine the sample of the 203 M&A announcements made by the bidder firms from the two major economies in the region-Poland and Russia-over the period 2006-2016. We apply the event study methodology to investigate the effect of the M&A announcement on the wealth of the acquirers' shareholders. The results demonstrate that on average investors of the Polish acquirers receive positive short-term wealth effect, while the investors of the Russian firms lose in short-term value. Our empirical findings provide partial support for the positive wealth effect when acquirers target the strategically important asset. Our results hold after controlling for the number of firm and transaction-specific characteristics. JEL Classification G14, G32, G34 Keywords mergers and acquisitions, event study, bidder gains, shareholder wealth effects, Central and Eastern Europe Author's e-mail lukashova.a.v@gmail.com Supervisor's e-mail kocenda@fsv.cuni.cz

Magister Legum - LLM / This paper focuses on mergers and acquisitions as tools for business growth, how these have come into existence, their strengths, and mainly the reasons for their failure. Taking a closer look on how these have emerged in the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa. Amongst the various ways that companies are able to get business financing, mergers and acquisitions have emerged as one of the most popular strategies for business diversity and growth. Mergers and acquisitions are agreed upon by companies to achieve certain strategic and financial goals. This is usually achieved by the bringing together of two companies with often contrasting corporate personalities, cultures and value systems.¹ The field of mergers and acquisitions has grown greatly over the past half century. At one point, mergers and acquisitions was mainly a US phenomenon but during the 1990‘s their volume in Europe started rivaling that of the USA. By 2000's mergers and acquisitions had become commonly used corporate strategies for companies‘ worldwide.² Even though the number of mergers and acquisition seems to increase and decrease in waves, they have been studied frequently. A study revealed that in 2004 an acquisition was made every 18 minutes all year round. There was normally not a business day that would go by without the news of a merger or an acquisition in the media. The decision to merge, usually taken by the board and shareholders of a company is always preceded by extensive planning and implementation.³ Mergers and acquisitions are part of the continuing process of the growth of companies and as a result of the separation of ownership and management, it is management which will play the dominant part in the initiation of such mergers and acquisition and their motives could be primarily self-interest.⁴ It is expected that merging mostly results in the creation or formation of larger companies or units and if those large companies merge with others, even larger units will result therefrom. The result of that large unit can be a commercial or financial institution which is capable of exerting pressure on a country's economy.⁵ Despite their popularity, most mergers and acquisitions result in financial failures and may produce results that are undesirable for the stakeholders of the company. Some consequences that are usually detrimental to investors are share underperformance, which usually takes place months after the acquisition.⁶ Success of mergers mostly depends on how well the organisations are integrated. This paper will examine mergers and acquisitions in depth, its overview, the motivation of companies to undertake mergers and acquisitions and the reason for its failures. The paper will also examine the regulations and the success of mergers and acquisitions in the United States, United Kingdom and South Africa. Lastly, the last chapter will conclude with a finding of whether mergers and acquisitions can be said to be a strategy for business growth.

The frequency with which acquisitions occur in the South African business environment served as motivation to evaluate the effect of acquisition announcements on the share performance of JSE listed shares. The basis of the study was to use event study methodology to evaluate short term effects as well as to investigate size effects in acquisition announcements. Companies were grouped into small and large companies using market capitalisation as segmentation criteria. To evaluate effects on the share price and volume traded, the market demand curve for traded securities was used. It proved to be a useful tool specifically in the evaluation of smaller companies, where information asymmetry was prevalent. The shift in the demand curve was evaluated by constructing a Demand Curve Variable, which showed the direction (if any) of the change in the demand curve. Acquisition announcements by JSE listed companies over the last seven years were evaluated and confounding events were controlled for. The findings supported the fact that there exist differences in the results of the small and large company samples when making acquisition announcements, and that small companies have more pronounced negative effects subsequent to the announcement of an acquisition. / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Bringing more agricultural land into production for biofuels and food crops will be necessary if we are to both fulfill our collective climate initiative goals and feed an increasing global population. The direct competition between land for food and land for biofuels has resulted in increased interest in identifying 'marginal lands' such that biofuels can be grown on land that does not threaten the food security of poor, rural communities. The term `marginal land' is also used by developing state governments to describe large swaths of land being leased to private or state-affiliated investors in what has been referred to by the international research community as the 'global land grab'. 'Marginal land', however, is defined and operationalized differently across users and anecdotal evidence shows that some lands classified as marginal are actually used by local communities. Empirical studies investigating these contested lands have not incorporated spatial information. The main objective of this thesis is to conduct a multi-scalar, spatially-explicit exploration of the marginal lands narrative. The first chapter investigates the ontology of the marginal land label as it is applied on a global/regional scale using a meta-analysis of four recent studies. The second chapter triangulates national-level geospatial information with information from semi-structured interviews to examine marginal lands allocated to Ethiopia's federal land bank as contested spaces. The third chapter uses a statistical analysis to identify the socio-political and biophysical determinants of banked lands on a subnational scale in Benishangul-Gumuz, Ethiopia. Results show that methods using remotely sensed information to identify marginal lands on a global/regional scale are qualitatively and quantitatively divergent and are limited in their usefulness in identifying available land for biofuels. The Ethiopia case study finds that the federal government is banking 'marginal land' for future investment that is more appropriately understood as 'land unused for commercial agriculture' and that they are contested spaces where the federal government stands to incur multiple benefits through their transformation to large-scale agriculture. I also find both biophysical and socio-political factors (i.e. ethnicity, agricultural practices) guide the federal government's decision regarding which land to target in the subnational region of Benishangul-Gumuz.

In an ever increasing competitive environment, pharmaceutical companies keep on expanding. Mergers&Acquisitions (M&A’s) seems to be one of the preferred means of acquiring critical mass and economies of scale. Research has suggested that human resource capability in the post-acquisition implementation is critical. This study intended to explore whether the role of culture in M&A’s are acknowledged at subsidiary level and if so, to establish an applicable framework for managing it. Twelve semi-structured interviews were conducted in order to gain a deeper understanding of the effect of cultural integration on the M&A process. The data was coded, analysed and collapsed into themes in order to establish the applicability of the framework proposed by Lodorfos&Boateng (2006) and possible amendments to it. Rank order tables were used to measure the relative importance of constructs. Only two thirds of senior management at subsidiary level acknowledged the importance of culture at the time of the M&A, management strategies or plans for dealing with it was found to be inadequate with only fifty percent of interviewees being aware of it. The Lodorfos&Boateng (2006) framework is supported by the data generated in this study, but needs to be amended in terms of leadership role, people orientation and communication. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Mergers and acquisitions remain a constant feature of both the local and international markets, but little is definitely know about what determinants of aggregate merger activityThe aim of this research report is to evaluate the dynamic relationship between a selected number of determinants and aggregate merger activity. We limited our selection of determinants to either macroeconomic or market factors, and limited our acquirers listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.We defined aggregate merger activity using three measures, namely, quarterly deal frequency, quarterly deal value and a relative measure, which took the ratio of deal value over the JSE All Share Index. We utilised Gross Domestic Product, the Repurchase Rate, Consumer Price Index (CPI) and Producer Price Index (PPI) as our macroeconomic variables. Our market variables were the JSE All Share Index, the All Bond Index and the USD/ZAR Foreign Exchange Rate. Employing the appropriate data transformations, unit root, regression analysis and cointegration tests we were able to statistically test for the hypothesized relationships.Results indicated that only the Repurchase Rate was applicable in explaining the variation in the deal frequency variable, while none of the chosen determinants were significant in explaining the variation in the deal value and relative deal value measures. Overall, we found in all three cases that the fitted regression model did not explain the variation in our aggregate merger measure well.On a long-term equilibrium basis, we found that the All Bond Index and CPI were cointegrated with the deal frequency measure. The deal value measure had a long-term equilibrium relationship with the JSE All Share Index, while the relative deal value measure had a long term equilibrium relationship with the All Bond Index, CPI and PPI / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Selected economic and legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions in the Czech Republic Abstract The aim of this diploma thesis is to describe selected economic and legal aspects of mergers and acquisitions and assess them. In the first part, the diploma thesis focuses on defining the terms of mergers and acquisitions and their classification. Forms of mergers and acquisitions are distinguished and their types based on market position of participating companies are explained. In the second part, the diploma thesis describes motives leading to mergers and acquisitions. The main motive is synergy, a phenomenon of increasing the value of participating companies by merging them. Furthermore, the waves in which mergers and acquisitions were emerging are listed, including the seventh wave which peaked last year. The third part of the diploma thesis focuses on mergers and acquisitions on the Czech market. At first the comparison within the region is provided and afterwards the thesis deals with development over time, mix of industries and largest transactions of last years. Czech Republic is one of the most active countries in the region from the perspective of value of transactions. The value of transactions in years 2011-2017 grew on average significantly faster than the Czech gross domestic product. Largest Czech...

The purpose of this research is to examine whether accounting methods for business combinations (purchase and pooling-of-interests accounting) have a different effect on firms' market value of equity in the combination year and thereafter. In particular, after the accounting method is no longer disclosed in the financial statements, does it have an impact on market value of equity of the combined firms because the accounting figures are different? A five-year period subsequent to a particular business combination is used because public companies are not required to disclose the details of the combination for more than three years after the effective date of the combination. This research, thus, tests whether market participants still take into consideration the accounting method of past business combinations when this information is no longer disclosed in the financial statements. In addition to the testing of the impact of the accounting methods, the value-relevance of goodwill amortization is investigated. The sample consisted of 100 U.S. business combination transactions during the period 1985–1995 (77 pooling firms and 23 purchase firms). The results do not indicate that market participants price pooling firms and purchase firms differently at the time of business combinations. The results, in addition, do not confirm that when the details of a particular business combinations do not appear in the financial statements, pooling firms' accounting figures have a more positive effect on security prices than those of purchase firms. It seems that market participant are able, even in the long term, to account for the accounting difference between purchase and pooling-of-interests. Also, goodwill amortization does not appear to be value relevant. / Ph. D.

The present thesis analyzes whether and - if so - under which conditions mergers result in merger-specific efficiency gains. The analysis concentrates on manufacturing firms in Europe that participate in horizontal mergers as either buyer or target in the years 2005 to 2014. The result of the present study is that mergers are idiosyncratic processes. Thus, the possibilities to define general conditions that predict merger-specific efficiency gains are limited. However, the results of the present study indicate that efficiency gains are possible as a direct consequence of a merger. Efficiency changes can be measured by a Total Factor Productivity (TFP) approach. Significant merger-specific efficiency gains are more likely for targets than for buyers. Moreover, mergers of firms that mainly operate in the same segment are likely to generate efficiency losses. Efficiency gains most likely result from reductions in material and labor costs, especially on a short- and mid-term perspective. The analysis of conditions that predict efficiency gains indicates that firm that announce the merger themselves are capable to generate efficiency gains in a short- and mid-term perspective. Furthermore, buyers that are mid-sized firms are more likely to generate efficiency gains than small or large buyers. Results also indicate that capital intense firms are likely to generate efficiency gains after a merger. The present study is structured as follows. Chapter 1 motivates the analysis of merger-specific efficiency gains. The definition of conditions that reasonably likely predict when and to which extent mergers will result in merger-specific efficiency gains, would improve the merger approval or denial process. Chapter 2 gives a literature review of some relevant empirical studies that analyzed merger-specific efficiency gains. None of the empirical studies have analyzed horizontal mergers of European firms in the manufacturing sector in the years 2005 to 2014. Thus, the present study contributes to the existing literature by analyzing efficiency gains from those mergers. Chapter 3 focuses on the identification of mergers. The merger term is defined according to the EC Merger Regulation and the Horizontal Merger Guidelines. The definition and the requirements of mergers according to legislation provides the framework of merger identification. Chapter 4 concentrates on the efficiency measurement methodology. Most empirical studies apply a Total Factor Productivity (TFP) approach to estimate efficiency. The TFP approach uses linear regression in combination with a control function approach. The estimation of coefficients is done by a General Method of Moments approach. The resulting efficiency estimates are used in the analysis of merger-specific efficiency gains in chapter 5. This analysis is done separately for buyers and targets by applying a Difference-In-Difference (DID) approach. Chapter 6 concentrates on an alternative approach to estimate efficiency, that is a Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA) approach. Comparable to the TFP approach, the SFA approach is a stochastic efficiency estimation methodology. In contrast to TFP, SFA estimates the production function as a frontier function instead of an average function. The frontier function allows to estimate efficiency in percent. Chapter 7 analyses the impact of different merger- and firm-specific characteristics on efficiency changes of buyers and targets. The analysis is based on a multiple regression, which is applied for short-, mid- and long-term efficiency changes of buyers and targets. Chapter 8 concludes. / Die Dissertation mit dem Titel 'Merger-specific Efficiency Gains' beschäftigt sich mit der Frage, ob und inwieweit Fusionen zu Effizienzsteigerungen der beteiligten Parteien beitragen. Die Analyse konzentriert sich dabei auf europäische Firmen im verarbeitenden Gewerbe, die im Zeitraum von 2005 bis einschließlich 2014 entweder als Käufer oder als Kaufobjekt an einer horizontalen Fusion beteiligt waren. Ergebnis dieser Dissertation ist, dass Fusionen einzigartige Prozesse sind. Allgemeingültige Aussagen hinsichtlich Zeitpunkt, Zeitraum und Umfang fusionsbedingter Effizienzgewinne sind daher nur bedingt möglich. Die Ergebnisse dieser Dissertation deuten darauf hin, dass Effienzgewinne als direkte Konsequenz einer Fusion möglich sind. Effizienzveränderungen können mithilfe einer Total Factor Productivity (TFP)-Methode gemessen werden. Signifikante fusionsbedingte Effizienzgewinne sind für gekaufte Unternehmen wahrscheinlicher als für Käufer. Desweiteren treten sie frühestens ab dem zweiten Jahr nach einer Fusion auf. Die Verschmelzung von zwei Unternehmen, die beide im gleichen Hauptsegment tätig sind, führt allerdings eher zu Effizienzverlusten als Effizienzgewinnen. Effizienzgewinne werden vor allem kurz- bis mittelfristig durch Veränderungen in den Material- und Personalkosten herbeigeführt. Insgesamt sind fusionsbedingte Effizienzgewinne eher von der Art der Firmen als von der Art der Fusion abhängig. Die Analyse der Gründe für fusionsbedingte Effizienzgewinne zeigt, dass Firmen, die die Information über die Fusion selber veröffentlichen, kurz- bis mittelfristig Effizienzgewinne generieren. Des Weiteren sind mittelgroße Käufer eher in der Lage Effizienzgewinne zu generieren als kleine oder große Käufer. Zudem zeigt die Untersuchung, dass kapitalintensivere Unternehmen häufig Effizienzgewinne nach einer Fusion generieren. Die Arbeit ist wie folgt strukturiert. In der Einleitung werden die Gründe für eine Beschäftigung mit der Frage nach fusionsbedingten Effizienzgewinnen dargelegt. Die Herausarbeitung von Faktoren, anhand derer sich der Zeitpunkt, der Umfang und der Zeitraum fusionsbedingter Effizienzgewinne bestimmen ließe, kann in der Praxis die Entscheidung für oder gegen eine Fusion erleichtern. Das zweite Kapitel beinhaltet einen Literaturüberblick über ausgewählte empirische Studien, die sich mit der Frage nach fusionsbedingten Effizienzgewinnen bereits befasst haben. Eine Studie, die horizontale Fusionen von europäischen Firmen im verarbeitenden Gewerbe zwischen 2005 und 2014 untersucht, liegt bisher nicht vor. Die vorliegende Arbeit leistet mit der Analyse von Effizienzgewinnen eben solcher Fusionen einen Beitrag zur vorhandenen Literatur. Das dritte Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit der Identifizierung von Fusionen. Die Fusionsdefinition entstammt der Europäischen Zusammenschlusskontrolle sowie den Richtlinien zur Bewertung horizontaler Fusionen. Anhand von Begriffsbestimmungen und festgelegten Kriterien schafft der europäische Gesetzgeber einen Rahmen zur Identifizierung von Fusionen. Im Fokus des vierten Kapitels steht die Effizienzschätzmethode. In empirischen Studien wird vorwiegend die TFP-Methode zur Schätzung der Effizienz eingesetzt. Die TFP-Methode bedient sich der ökonometrischen Methode der linearen Regression in Kombination mit einem Kontrollfunktionsansatz. Die Schätzung der Parameter erfolgt mit Hilfe der verallgemeinerten Momentenmethode. Die Ergebnisse der Effizienzschätzung gehen im fünften Kapitel in die Analyse fusionsbedinger Effizienzgewinne ein. Die Analyse erfolgt unter Zuhilfenahme der Difference-In-Difference (DID)-Methode und wird für Käufer und Gekaufte separat durchgeführt. Das sechste Kapitel beschäftigt sich mit einer alternativen Methode zur Effizienzschätzung, der Stochastic Frontier Analysis (SFA)-Methode. Vergleichbar zur TFP-Methode handelt es sich um eine stochastische Methode. Im Gegensatz zur TFP-Methode wird die Produktionsfunktion als Grenzfunktion und nicht als durchschnittliche Funktion geschätzt. So ist es möglich, Effizienz in Prozent auszudrücken. Es folgt im siebten Kapitel eine Analyse des Einflusses verschiedener fusions- und firmenspezifischer Faktoren auf die Effizienzveränderung bei Käufern und Gekauften. Die Analyse erfolgt mittels einer multiplen Regression und wird separat für kurz-, mittel- und langfristige Veränderung der Effizienz von Käufern und Gekauften durchgeführt. Im achten Kapitel folgt die Schlussbetrachtung.

This thesis investigates the role of financial advisors and their impact on their clients' short-term M&A deal performance. The examination of the extant literature on M&A advisors reveals a lack of focus on the target side of the equation. Therefore, the first topic is dedicated to the examination of the effects of target financial advisors' involvement and quality on their clients' short-term M&A deal outcomes. The findings reveal that targets that opt to hire an advisor are able to achieve better short-term deal performance, and that highly reputable target advisors are associated with higher premiums in all-cash deals. To add more clarity on the mechanisms through which target advisors contribute to the performance of M&A deals, I leverage a hand-collected dataset, from public targets' SEC filings, that covers the actual activities conducted by target advisors. The results of the analyses conducted show that target advisors add value through the provision of services relating to the evaluation of deals from a financial perspective, however, assigning them to the search/matching activities is associated with a negative effect on the premium achieved. Despite the abundant literature on the role of acquirers' financial advisors in M&A deals, findings on the impact of their involvement in such deals are rather inconclusive, and the bulk of research in this area is quite dated. Using the different ranking schemes developed, I re-examine this topic using a most recent dataset (2001 to 2017). I find that acquirers' financial advisors with stronger past performance are able to secure better short-term deal outcomes to their clients, and in line with Golubov et al. (2012), highly reputable acquirers' advisors deliver higher returns to their clients in public deals. The presence of an advisor (on the target or on the acquirer side) allows completing deals in a shorter period of time. This thesis covers, as well, the determinants of advisor hiring-related decisions regarding the reputation of the advisor selected. The findings reveal that, on the target side, there is a higher propensity to hire a highly-ranked financial advisor when the firm is being served by a Big-4 accounting firm, and in the presence of a larger institutional ownership base. On the acquirer side, firms are found to be more likely to hire a highly-ranked financial advisor if they face a higher litigation risk, if they are served by a Big-4 accounting company, and if they involve a higher institutional ownership base. The findings of this research project hold important implications both for businesses involved, through guiding their choice of advisor to assist them with their M&A deals, and for the academic research by offering a comprehensive analysis that incorporates a range of existing and newly developed proxies of quality, thus reconciling the inconclusive findings reached in the extant literature.