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Abstract

This thesis comprises three essays on Mergers and Acquisitions. In the first chapter I use an international sample of M&A deals to test the implications of the clientele theory of dividends in the context of post-acquisition dividend policy. I contribute to the literature by controlling for the effect of the target’s shareholder characteristics and the gap between target and bidder pre-acquisition dividend policies on post-M&A dividend policy. In line with the clientele theory of dividends, this chapter demonstrates that, in all stock payment deals, post-acquisition dividends per share increase with the pre-acquisition percentage difference between target and acquirer DPS and with the size of the dividend clientele from the target company which becomes part of the bidder’s shareholder base. The second chapter tests how informed investors with local expertise can affect cross-border deal success using a comprehensive dataset of corporate acquirers’ share registers. We present evidence which confirms the hypothesis that acquirers in cross-border corporate transactions are more likely to be successful if the acquirer’s investors have a higher level of expertise in the target region, and that this effect is strongest when the maturity for corporate transactions of the target country is low. The third chapter contributes to the literature by investigating the wealth effects of horizontal acquisitions on the upstream and downstream participants in the product-market chain when the target company is in financial distress. This chapter posits that the financial health of the target is particularly relevant when considering the buyer power of the merging firms. Specifically, I hypothesise that industry-related acquisitions are more likely to increase the buyer power of the merging companies when the target is financially distressed due to the debtor-oriented insolvency rules in the US which allow bankrupt companies to renegotiate supplier contracts. The results of the study support this a priori expectation.

Publication Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HG Finance
Departments:	Bayes Business School > Finance Doctoral Theses Bayes Business School > Bayes Business School Doctoral Theses

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