Affiliation:
1. Economics Faculty, Lomonosov Moscow State University
Abstract
Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) are among the key strategies for stabilizing and strengthening a company's market position in an unstable economic environment and gaining a competitive advantage from inorganic growth. Doing so, big M&A deals show a higher risk of failing, being terminated, or being incomplete, which can lead to financial, reputational, and time losses. Due to these factors, prudent risk-management of such transactions is necessary, including the evaluation of the degree to which various risk groups influence M&A success. This paper evaluates big (those the value of which exceeds 10 billion euros) M&A projects risks influence on the success of the deal closure quantitatively and offers recommendations for managing significant risks using the project methodology. The analysis includes probit-regressions on a wide sample of 24 countries and 10 amalgamated industries. As a result, five risk groups appear significant: risk of transaction's hostile nature; cross-country risks; risk of misjudging the transaction value; risks associated with the size ratio of target and acquiring companies; risk of delaying the terms of the deal. Transnational mergers and acquisitions demonstrate a stronger influence of all significant risks on the transaction's success. The paper provides recommendations for managing significant risks using the project methodology.
Publisher
The Russian Academy of Sciences
Subject
General Earth and Planetary Sciences,General Environmental Science