Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Union mergers and amalgamations'

Union mergers have occurred since unions were first established. Research on this particular aspect of the union movement is well established in the UK and the US. However, there are few studies of Australian union mergers, despite the fact that many Australian unions took part in a 'merger boom' in the 1980s and 1990s. Two of the few Australian studies, Hocking (1996) and Campling and Michelson (1998), utilised resource dependency and strategic choice theories to ascertain the why and how of union mergers. However, these Australian studies, like their UK and US counterparts, cease with the completion of the merger and, consequently, there is little known of the post-merger operation of unions. How does the integration of the merger partners - with their traditions, structures and financial arrangements - occur? This thesis rectifies the gap in the literature by means of a qualitative, longitudinal study of the merger and post-merger activities of one of the largest and most prominent unions in Australia, the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), as it moved towards complete amalgamation. The thesis examines the period 1995-2003. Four of the five pre-merger unions faced a serious and continued decline in membership and all faced mounting financial deficits. From 1995, the year the various mergers were completed, membership decline continued and financial resources dwindled further, providing the impetus for further and significant post-merger changes. The analysis demonstrates that, due to a continuing lack of financial resources, the AMWU leadership initiated a budgeting strategy which influenced the actions and changed the opinions of many of the Union's officials, guiding them towards accepting integration of the constituent divisions and near complete amalgamation. The thesis answers the questions of why and how a union moves from a negotiated federated structure towards amalgamation, post merger, with a particular focus on financial decision-making processes.
Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Griffith Business School
Griffith Business School
Full Text

Union mergers have occurred since unions were first established. Research on this particular aspect of the union movement is well established in the UK and the US. However, there are few studies of Australian union mergers, despite the fact that many Australian unions took part in a 'merger boom' in the 1980s and 1990s. Two of the few Australian studies, Hocking (1996) and Campling and Michelson (1998), utilised resource dependency and strategic choice theories to ascertain the why and how of union mergers. However, these Australian studies, like their UK and US counterparts, cease with the completion of the merger and, consequently, there is little known of the post-merger operation of unions. How does the integration of the merger partners - with their traditions, structures and financial arrangements - occur? This thesis rectifies the gap in the literature by means of a qualitative, longitudinal study of the merger and post-merger activities of one of the largest and most prominent unions in Australia, the Australian Manufacturing Workers' Union (AMWU), as it moved towards complete amalgamation. The thesis examines the period 1995-2003. Four of the five pre-merger unions faced a serious and continued decline in membership and all faced mounting financial deficits. From 1995, the year the various mergers were completed, membership decline continued and financial resources dwindled further, providing the impetus for further and significant post-merger changes. The analysis demonstrates that, due to a continuing lack of financial resources, the AMWU leadership initiated a budgeting strategy which influenced the actions and changed the opinions of many of the Union's officials, guiding them towards accepting integration of the constituent divisions and near complete amalgamation. The thesis answers the questions of why and how a union moves from a negotiated federated structure towards amalgamation, post merger, with a particular focus on financial decision-making processes.

Throughout their history individual trade unions have amalgamated together to form new unions. The catalyst for amalgamation has come from a combination of sources industrial change, government policy and legislation and internal motivations related to membership size and resources. At the same time local union organisation has remained integral to the structure of unions including their internal government, bargaining ability and engagement with members. This thesis relates these two features of trade union practice to each other by considering the effects of amalgamation on local union organisation, both in terms of the local level itself and the local level as part of the whole organisation of the union. The thesis does this through a case study approach to the research. The case studies are of three major UK trade unions which have experienced amalgamation over a ten year timeframe and a local union organisation within each of these. The unions reflect a spread of industry, different forms of organisation and types of membership. The research examines the tensions and synergies between the different levels of organisation in a union and their leaders in themselves and as they influence a process and outcome of amalgamation. As a study of trade union organisation and behaviour the thesis engages with and complements the wider body of research into union mergers and that on local union organisation in unions. Its individual contribution is to the research on trade union mergers where the position of the local level of union organisation has been a neglected area of investigation. Beyond that it also provides further insights into the role and activity of paid officials and lay representatives as union leaders, the role and activity of organised factions within unions, the influence of unions' industrial and ideological orientation on forms of local union organisation and the tension between different concepts of trade union structure and behaviour.

This thesis considers the adequacy of existing theories of implementation of tertiary education policy, in relation to university amalgamations in the 1980s and 1990s in Australia. In particular the thesis examines the difficulties of mergers attempted in the case of Monash University (a successful amalgamation), the University of New England (a partially successful amalgamation), and the Australian National University (an amalgamation which never took place). The thesis argues that the best available model of policy implementation in the tertiary education sector is that set out by Cerych and Sabatier (1986), and that even this is less than adequate through its omission of several relevant factors, notably the factor of leadership. The thesis accordingly presents a modification of the Cerych and Sabatier (1986) model as well as suggestions for inclusion of factors omitted in the broader implementation literature.

In his 2012 Budget Review, the Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan acknowledged that the introduction of the "new" Companies Act had given rise to certain anomalies in relation to tax and subsequently announced that the South African government would undertake to review the nature of company mergers, acquisitions and other restructurings with the view of possibly amending the Income Tax Act and/or the "new" Companies Act, to bring the two legislations in line with one another. These anomalies give rise to the present research. The literature reviewed in the present research revealed and identified the inconsistencies that exist between the "new" Companies Act, 71 of 2008 and the Income Tax Act, 58 of 1962, specifically the inconsistencies that exist in respect of the newly introduced amalgamation or merger provisions as set out in the "new" Companies Act. Moreover, this research was undertaken to identify the potential tax implications insofar as they relate to amalgamation transactions and, in particular, the potential tax implications where such transactions, because of the anomalies, fall outside the ambit section 44 of the Income Tax Act, which would in normal circumstances provide for tax "rollover relief". In this regard, the present research identified the possible income tax, capital gains tax, value-added tax, transfer duty tax and securities transfer tax affected by an amalgamation transaction, on the assumption that the "rollover relief" in section 44 of the Income Tax Act does not apply.

Mergers and acquisitions represent a dynamic process of corporate culture and strategy. Empirical evidence indicates a high rate of failure of M&A's to create value for the shareholders of the firms. On the other hand, internal audit has evolved dramatically during the last years from its traditional role of control orientation to a more proactive, risk based and consultancy role. But despite this evolution, empirical evidence showed that internal audit function has no effective contribution during the M&A activity. This study analyzes the present level of involvement of internal audit function during the M&A activity and compare it with the preferred and ideal (normative) level. This comparison leads to the identification of possible gaps between these three different models. This gap analysis identifies the possible reasons of this low level of involvement, as well as, possible means and actions in order to participate more actively to the specialized M&A projects. Finally, we formulated and validated a best practices model of a more expanded level of internal audit involvement at the different stages of M&A's, as well as, a list of potential prerequisites and actions for this expansion.

Merger review has gained in importance in both Canada and the European Union since the enactment of the Competition Act in 1986 and the Merger Regulation in 1989 respectively. The increase in international trade and the globalization of the world economy have forced both jurisdictions to reform the relevant provisions of their Competition law as concerns mergers in order to keep pace with these rapid changes.
The thesis offers a thorough description of the current merger review laws in both systems, and the proposed amendments under consideration in Canada and the EU. In the last chapter, the author compares both procedures and comes to the conclusion that, notwithstanding certain differences in objectives and perception, merger regulation in both systems seems to flow along the same lines. Canada does, however, hold a (lonely) special position as far as the 'efficiency defence' is concerned.

This thesis develops a range of prediction models for the purpose of predicting the acquisition of commercial banks in the European Union using publicly available data. Over the last thirty years, there have been approximately 30 studies that have attempted to identify potential acquisition targets, all of them focusing on non-bank sectors. We consider that prediction models developed specifically for the banking industry are essential due to the unusual structure of banks' financial statements, differences in the environment in which banks operate and other specific characteristics of banks that in general distinguish them from non-financial firms. We focus specifically on the EU banking sector, where M&As activity has been considerable in recent years, yet academic research relating to the EU has been rather limited compared to the case of the US. The methodology for developing prediction models involved identifying past cases of acquired banks and combining these with non-acquired banks in order to evaluate the prediction accuracy of various quantitative classification techniques. In this study, we construct a base sample of commercial banks covering 15 EU countries, and financial variables measuring capital strength, profit and cost efficiency, liquidity, growth, size and market power, with data in both raw and country-adjusted (i.e. raw variables divided by the average of the banking sector for the corresponding country) form. In order to allow for a proper comparative evaluation of classification methods, we select common subsets of the base sample and variables with high discriminatory power, dividing the sample period (1998-2002) into training sub-sample for model development (1998-2000), and holdout sub-sample for model evaluation (2001-2002). Although the results tend to support the findings of studies on non-financial firms, highlighting the difficulties in predicting acquisition targets, the prediction models we develop show classification accuracies generally higher than chance assignment based on prior probabilities. We also consider the use of equal and unequal matched holdout samples for evaluation, and find that overall classification accuracy tends to increase in the unequal matched samples, implying that equal matched samples do not necessarily overstate the prediction ability of models. The main goal of this study has been to compare and evaluate a variety of classification methods including statistical, econometric, machine learning and operational research techniques, as well as integrated techniques combining the predictions of individual classification methods. We found that some methods achieved very high accuracies in classifying non-acquired banks, but at the cost of relatively poor accuracy performance in classifying acquired banks. This suggests a trade-off in achieving high classification accuracy, although some methods (e.g. Discriminant) performed reasonably well in terms of achieving balanced overall classification accuracies of above chance predictions. Integrated prediction models offer the advantage of counterbalancing relatively poor performance of some classification methods with good performance of others, but in doing so could not out-perform all individual classification methods considered. In general, we found that the outcome of which method performed best depended largely on the group classification accuracy considered, as well as to some extent on the choice of the discriminatory variables. Concerning the use of raw or country-adjusted data, we found no clear effect on the prediction ability of the classification methods.

The present research aims to study the special rights other than shares in Spanish Law and the protection of their holders in cross-border mergers of limited liability companies within the European Union frame. Special rights other than shares are recognised as an independent legal category within legal systems of some EU Member States, such as Germany or Spain, through the implementation of the Third Directive 78/855/CEE concerning mergers of public limited liability companies. The above-cited Directive contains a special regime of protection for the holders of securities, other than shares, to which special rights are attached, consisting of being given rights in the acquiring company, at least equivalent to those they possessed in the company being acquired. This safeguard is to highlight the intimate connection between this type of rights and the company whose extinction determines the existence of those. Pursuant to the Directive 2005/56/CE on cross-border mergers of limited liability companies, each company taking part in these operations shall comply with the safeguards of members and third parties provided in their respective national law to which is subject. In this regard, the protection for holders of special rights other than shares shall be ruled by the domestic M&A regime. As far as Spanish Law are concerned, holders of these special rights are recognized a right of merger information, in the same terms as shareholders, as well as equal rights in the company resulting from the cross-border merger. However, these measures are not enough guarantee for a suitable protection, thus considering those holders of special rights as special creditors, sometimes it will be necessary to go to the general protection regime for creditors. In Spanish Law, it would involve the recognition of right to the merger opposition, whose exercise would prevent the operation was completed until ensuring equal rights.

Par comparaison avec la littérature sur les fusions-acquisitions nationales, celles sur les fusions-acquisitions transfrontalières (Cross-Border Mergers & Acquisitions, CBM&A) est relativement récente. En particulier, nous avons encore très peu d’études sur les fusions-acquisitions entre les entreprises des pays développés et émergents. Cette thèse considère trois questions rarement abordées jusqu’à présent. 1) Est-ce que la diversification industrielle peut expliquer les fusions-acquisitions entre les entreprises européennes et des marchés émergents? 2) Est-ce que le marché valorise plus dans ces opérations les actions de diversification industrielle? 3) Quelles sont les modalités de paiement préférées dans ce type d’opérations ? Parallèlement, nous avons comparé ces opérations de fusions-acquisitions à celles ayant lieu en France et à l’intérieur de l’Union Européenne. Fondés sur 2406 fusions-acquisitions en France, 7628 à l’intérieur de l’Union Européenne et 1857 entre des entreprises européennes et des marchés émergents sur la période 1992(1998)-2012, nos résultats sont les suivants. Premièrement, conformément à ce qui est observé dans les fusions-acquisitions entre des entreprises des pays développés mais contrairement à ce que laisse entendre la littérature théorique sur les investissements dans les marchés émergents, les fusions-acquisitions entre les entreprises européennes et de pays émergents sont plutôt des opérations de spécialisation industrielle. Nous constatons également que la relation entre la diversification internationale et la diversification industrielle est négative. Deuxièmement, les effets d'annonce des CBM&A entre les pays de l’'Union Européenne et les marchés émergents se traduisent par une augmentation de richesse des actionnaires des entreprises européennes acquéreuses. Cependant, par rapport aux fusions et acquisitions réalisées entièrement à l'intérieur de l'Union Européenne et en France, les effets d’annonces sont beaucoup moins positifs. Troisièmement, les marchés financiers sous-évaluent les entreprises européennes lors des fusions-acquisitions avec des entreprises de pays émergents. Nos résultats démontrent que les entreprises acquéreuses payent moins en espèces dans les fusions-acquisitions avec des entreprises des marchés émergents qu’avec d’autres entreprises européennes. En revanche, les primes payées ne sont pas significativement différentes. Nos résultats suggèrent aussi que les dirigeants des entreprises Européennes ne jouent pas sur le « market timing » lors de leurs décisions de paiement. Cette thèse a des implications importantes pour des futurs acquéreurs d’entreprises de pays émergents. Compte tenu des résultats obtenus sur la fin de notre période d’analyse, elle révèle que la diversification industrielle dans les fusions et acquisitions d’entreprises de pays industrialisés avec des entreprises de marchés émergents est plus importante ces dernières années, et qu’elle a un impact positif. Nous pensons que les résultats peuvent être attribuables soit à la crise financière soit à une meilleure intégration des marchés émergents dans l'économie mondiale. Elle met aussi en évidence qu'il existe des conflits d'intérêts clairs entre les investisseurs et les dirigeants lors de fusions-acquisitions entre des entreprises européennes et de pays émergents
Compared to domestic M&A, the literature of cross-border M&A is relatively fewer. Most of the current research is based on US studies. We also have much less knowledge about the cross-border M&A from developed countries to emerging countries. Motivated by the general research background, the thesis conducted three distinctive papers regarding cross-border M&As from European Union (EU) to emerging countries. We propose three research questions that are seldom addressed in previous literatures: 1) Does industrial diversification explain the cross-border M&A from the European Union to emerging countries? 2) Do market value industrial specialization or diversification in CBM&A with emerging countries? 3) Do acquiring managers take advantage of the market timing in payment decisions in CBM&A with emerging countries? In addition, we compared the CBM&As with those of domestic France as well as the CBM&As inside the European Union. Based on 2406 fusions-acquisitions in France, 7628 CBM&As inside the European Union, and 1857 CBM&As between European firms and the emerging markets during 1992-2012, we find the following results. First, consistent with what is observed in prior M&As literatures between companies in developed countries but contrary to what is suggested in the theoretical arguments in earlier literatures about emerging countries, we show CBM&As from the European Union to emerging countries are industrially specialized rather than industrially diversified. We find that there is a negative relationship between international diversification and industrial diversification. Second, we found that the announcement effects for CBM&As between the E.U.-15 and emerging market are positive, but compared to CBM&As conducted wholly inside the E.U.-15 and domestic M&As in France, they are significantly less positive due to the focus on industrial diversification versus specialization. Third, we found the market undervalues the acquiring firms in CBM&A from the European Union to emerging countries. The acquiring managers do not take the advantage of the market timing when making their payment decisions. Our results show the acquiring firms do not incline to pay cash in CBM&A to emerging countries but rather in CBM&A inside European Union. In the meanwhile, we find the premium paid by the acquiring firms are not different from CBM&As inside the European Union. Our analyses evidence that acquiring firms are reluctant to pay cash in CBM&As with emerging countries. The thesis contributes to the current M&A empirical literatures and it has provided important research implications. It highlights also that there are clear conflicts of interests between investors and managers in the cross-border from the European Union to emerging countries. The thesis also opens new perspectives for the future research. For example, we observed that industrial diversification has an increasing trend in recent years, and it is valued positively by the market. We believe the results may be attributable to either the financial crisis or the better integration of emerging markets into the world economy

碩士
國立臺灣大學
國家發展研究所
104
The European Union (EU) is both a supranational and intergovernmental organization consisting of 28 Member States. Over the course of five decades, it has become more and more integrated economically, aiming to form an internal market that seeks to guarantee the free movements of goods, capital, service and labors between the EU member states. Against the backdrop of globalization today, the world has become borderless, in which cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) have become the norm. Being one of the major actors in international trade, the EU is by no means a stranger to this phenomenon. As mentioned above, the EU has created the internal market, and therefore the regulations must be made at the European level and observed by all the Member States to ensure faire competition among all the market players. After the entry into force of the Single European Act (SEA) in 1987, which set the objective of establishing a European Single Market by the end of 1992, the aviation industry underwent the process of liberalization. Under Single European Sky and EU-US Open Skies Agreement, the entry barrier of the airline industry has been removed. From then on, not only can flag carrier fly regular transatlantic flights, but also private sectors. The deregulation in European aviation market serves two purposes: preventing government interventions within the EU, and thus creating a dynamic and diverse investment environment. However, the deregulation has made the market more competitive. To make their business more profitable, many airline companies will seek a merger with their competitors. In view of this phenomenon, the competition law is needed to ensure the open competition. The thesis aims to analysis the origin and the development of the EU Competition law and its application to cross-border airlines merger cases.

碩士
國立高雄大學
財經法律學系碩士班
105
In recent years, media mergers have become a worldwide phenomenon. As media mergers have special benefits on news freedom and free expression of opinion, it will create public concerns which differ from common mergers in competitive concerns only. Therefore it will be difficult to apply the law for the purposes of developing competitive market and maintaining media plurality. Moreover, the current regime in Taiwan faces difficulties of “new media” and cross-media mergers. As a result, this research makes a comparative study on the competition law regimes, taking into consideration of media plurality issues and media merger cases in European Union, United Kingdom, and Taiwan. Also it will offer suggestions on regime and how the authority could carry out proper analysis with competition.

碩士
淡江大學
中國大陸研究所碩士班
102
Before opening up its economy in 1979, China had virtually no enterprises as we know them today, let alone firm’s competitiveness, which is knowingly a condicio sine qua non for companies to engage in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).A few yars after the start of the reform process however, a limited number of state-owned Chinese companies started to carry out overseas investment. This type of FDI was nevertheless undistinguishable from government policy, and was therefore directed at securing energy resources needed by the nascent economic development and, to a lesser extent, to facilitate Chinese exports. When in 2001 China joined the WTO, the government started to carry out a cautious but constant liberalization of industries once shielded from international competition. Against this new background, the Chinese government realized that Chinese companies needed to become internationally competitive in order to survive both at home and abroad and accordingly started to ease restrictions with regard to the use of foreign exchange, also simplifying and making clearer the administrative approval procedure for outward investment. Meanwhile, the relevant bodies in the government launched several policies aiming at regulating, encouraging and supporting the new outward investment strategy announced by the top leadership in 2001,viz. the “go global” (“zou chu qu”) strategy. Following these policy changes, Chinese outward investment started to rise at an unprecedented level. Even though Asia and the developing countries receive the bulk of Chinese OFDI, a considerable and rising share of this new wealth is flowing to the European Union.We will see in the next paragraphs how Western Europe receives the lion’s share of Chinese OFDI in the EU, and how more than 2/3 of it is invested through cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A). M&A is a riskful but rapid way for companies to obtain the advanced technology, managerial and organizational capabilities as well as market share and distribution channel, tasks the normally would take several years to be achieved. Developing countries’ MNEs generally lack core competitiveness vis-a-vis firms from developed countries, and they can speed up the catch-up process through acquiring and absorbing firms (often from developed countries) which possess some sort of ownership advantage. Evidently, Chinese companies are heavily relying on M&As to increase their core competences and thus be able to compete both in the domestic and the international markets. The present dissertation will analyze the industrial and geographical distribution of Chinese M&As in the European Union, attempting to find out its patterns and trends, as well as trying to determine the role that the government’s policies on one side, and the Euro Zone crisis on the other side played in shaping Chinese firms’s M&As in the EU.

Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2006.
The educational reforms implemented by the Department of Education during the last decade have resulted in a number of high profile public university mergers taking place in South Africa. The private higher education sector has simultaneously been significantly restructured by new educational legislation, to such an extent that a numerous private providers have been forced to cease operations due to the onerous requirements of the new laws. In this context, private higher education institutions are increasingly being compelled to consider alternative strategic options in order to continue to operate as viable entities. This study examined two private theological higher education institutions operating in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and considered whether a merger of the two organisations would be advantageous in light of the pressures being faced by the institutions. The objectives of the study were to assess first, whether a merger of the two institutions would be feasible and second, whether it would be desirable. The study reviewed the literature relating to various forms of organisational co-operation , focusing particularly on mergers. The benefits associated with mergers were highlighted as well as the major causes of the extraordinarily high merger failure rate experienced in practice. The tendency of leaders of merging entities to overlook cultural and people issues when planning and implementing a merger was noted. Attention was given to the managerial approaches necessary to reduce the risk of merger failure. Factors specific to mergers within the non-profit and educational sectors were considered, focusing on structural options for multi-campus educational institutions in particular. The methodology used to address the research objectives called for the conducting of structured interviews with a sample of employees and Board or Council members from both institutions, as well as an examination of various institutional records. Employees of both institutions completed a simple questionnaire designed to provide data for an analysis of the respective organisational cultures of the two institutions. The findings of the study suggested that a merger between the institutions would be feasible, but that employees of the two organisations are not generally of the view that a merger would be desirable in the short term. There was however more support in principle for a merger in the medium to long term and the study consequently recommends that a joint task team be established to prepare a roadmap for the ultimate merger of the two institutions. In the short term it is recommended that a joint venture or strategic alliance be entered into by the two organisations primarily in order to test the compatibility of the two organisational cultures. Further recommendations cover issues such as the ideal structure for the merged entity and the process necessary to successfully manage the integration of two separate organisational cultures.

Cross-border merger and acquisitions (CBM&As) have extensively been used as a favorite entry mode in foreign markets, rapidly providing resources, competencies and local intelligence without risk of facing the liability of foreignness, or the burden of starting a greenfield investment. Studies indicate that greater institutional distance increases the costs of doing business in a foreign country, because it is associated with greater uncertainty and non-familiarity with the local environment. Besides that, prolonged duration of the M&A process has negative consequences for target and acquirer firms and bear significant costs for both parties. However, until so far, the studies regarding the effect of institutional distances on time to completion of a CBM&A deal are scarce. My theoretical model speculates on the effect of institutional distances (Political, Economic, Administrative and Cultural) in CBM&As time to completion. I further propose that European Union membership, of both target and acquirer countries, moderates the effect of institutional distances on CBM&As time to completion. The hypotheses are tested using a sample of 2,110 CBM&A deals that occurred during 2011 in European Union. On one hand, the results suggest that Political and Cultural distance have a positive effect on the time hiatus between announcement and completion of a CBM&A deal. On the other hand, the results suggest that European Union membership does moderate the effect of Economic and Administrative distance in CBM&A time to completion.

Dissertação de mestrado em Finanças
This study examines the short-term stock price reaction to an acquisition announcement and the long-term post-performance in order to test the existence of a momentum effect in mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The stock price reaction to the announcement of an acquisition is measured by the cumulative abnormal announcement returns (CAARs), while the long-run performance is estimated using the buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHARs). Using a sample of 3,496 European Union (EU) completed acquisitions between 2002 and 2012, I find evidence of merger momentum by showing that (1) acquirers are more likely to obtain higher CAARs in period of “hot merger markets” (i.e., when previous recent acquirers have also earned higher announcement returns) and (2) the higher abnormal announcement returns tend to revert in the long-run, with acquirers exhibiting lower BHARs. These results are in line with the investor sentiment (optimism) hypothesis in hot merger markets. Further, the findings hold after several robustness tests, including industry fixed effects and the elimination of consecutive acquisitions by the same acquirer that occur in a small time window.
Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar a existência de momentum em fusões e aquisições (F&A). Consistente com a literatura, este fenómeno é analisado através da comparação das rendibilidades anormais acumuladas com as rendibilidades a 3 anos das empresas envolventes na compra da aquisição. Usando uma amostra de 3496 F&A efetuadas por empresas pertencentes à União Europeia entre 2002 e 2012, encontra-se evidência de momentum, observando-se que (1) acquirers obtêm rendibilidades positivas e elevadas na presença de hot merger markets (isto é, quando recentes aquisições tem sido bem sucedidas) e (2) as elevadas rendibilidades tendem a reverter no longo prazo, com as empresas adquirentes reportando rendibilidades negativas a 3 anos. Os resultados são consistentes com a teoria do sentimento do investidor (otimismo). Após vários testes de robustez, incluindo efeitos fixos por indústria e a eliminação de aquisições consecutivas realizadas pela mesma empresa num pequeno espaço de tempo, os resultados mantêm-se consistentes.

Dissertação de mestrado em Finance
Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) in the European Union (EU) are rather frequent and represent around one third of the overall number of deals. Acquirers of targets located in the EU must comply with takeover rules set individually by member states, but also with European Council Directives. The most significant of these Directives in the context of M&As, and the one that will be further discussed in my research work, is the Takeover Bids Directive (TBD). The intent of the Directive is to ensure equal treatment for all companies launching takeover bids or that are subject to a change in control, providing minimum harmonization rules in view of creating a transparent environment for cross-border takeovers. This study examines the short-term stock price reaction to M&A announcements and the long-term post-announcement returns of firms involved in M&As in the EU to test if there are differences in the performance of domestic and international deals. Then, I study the impact of the enactment of the TBD on announcement returns of cross-border M&As. I also examine other determinants of cross-border deals. To test my hypotheses, I use the event study methodology, buy-and-hold abnormal returns, difference-in-differences techniques and probabilistic models. Using a sample of 2197 M&As conducted between 2000 and 2015, I do not find evidence that there are significant differences among domestic and international M&As in the short- or in the long-term. Furthermore, I conclude that the TBD did not have any significant impact on the short-term performance of M&As and that it also failed in the attempt to foster cross-border deals in the EU. Nevertheless, and consistent with previous literature, I do find that firms located in member states with lower investor protection and civil law origin are more likely to be targeted in cross-border deals.
Na União Europeia, as Fusões e Aquisições internacionais são bastante frequentes e representam cerca de um terço do número total de Fusões e Aquisições. Os adquirentes de empresas localizadas na União Europeia necessitam cumprir com a legislação referente à reestruturação de empresas de cada país, assim como com Diretivas do Conselho Europeu. A Diretiva mais relevante no que concerne ao controlo societário, e que será estudada ao longo desta Dissertação, é a Diretiva relativa às Ofertas Públicas de Aquisição. O objetivo desta é garantir tratamento igualitário a todas as empresas envolvidas em ofertas públicas de aquisição, fornecendo orientações mínimas de harmonização, de modo a fomentar as atividades de reestruturação. Neste estudo é analisada a reação de curto prazo dos preços das ações das empresas envolvidas em Fusões e Aquisições na União Europeia, assim como a reação de longo prazo, de forma a avaliar se existem diferenças no desempenho de Fusões e Aquisições domésticas e internacionais. Seguidamente, é avaliado o impacto da transposição da Diretiva relativa às Ofertas Públicas de Aquisição no desempenho de curto prazo. São também analisados outros determinantes destas atividades de reestruturação na União Europeia. De forma a testar as hipóteses formuladas, são usadas as metodologias event study, buy-and-hold abnormal returns, difference-in-differences, assim como modelos probabilísticos. Recorrendo a uma amostra de 2197 Fusões e Aquisições realizadas entre 2000 e 2015, não são encontradas diferenças significativas no que concerne ao desempenho de curto e longoprazo entre Fusões e Aquisições domésticas e internacionais. Conclui-se também que a Diretiva relativa às Ofertas Públicas de Aquisição não teve um impacto significativo no desempenho de curto prazo, nem no fomento de um mercado de controlo societário na União Europeia. Todavia, conclui-se que empresas localizadas em países com menos proteção de investidores e com origem civil law são mais propensas a serem alvo de Aquisições internacionais.

The content of my work has been chosen on the basis that I have spent most of my career working as a regulatory lawyer in telecommunications. I started my career as a lawyer at the Czech Telecommunications Office and after few years I moved to the Ministry of Transport, which was then also responsible for telecommunications, and its strategy and legislation. Finally I joined Radiomobil (now T-Mobile Czech Republic) where I have spent 15 years to date. The development of technologies in the last 20 years is without a doubt fascinating. It is exciting to observe the sector regulation trying to catch up with the fast moving technological developments, and often aiming at attempting to regulate what cannot be regulated. At the same time we can witness the overregulated European telecommunications market gasping for air in comparison with other regions as it becomes less and less attractive to investments and investors, which is evidenced by the major European companies leaving the European markets and moving their activities into the less regulated regions of the world. A direct consequence of that is the consolidation of the European telecommunications markets. At the same time there are very high expectations on the part of both regulatory bodies and customers in the field of broadband development...