A post-merger performance of acquiring firms: evidence from French stock market

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of takeovers on the short- and long-run stock market performance of a sample of 87 mergers and acquisitions transactions undertaken between 2008–2012 by French financial and real estate industry. For the short horizon event studies, document short-run non-significant abnormal returns of acquiring companies. Furthermore, we test the financial performance by computing the cumulative abnormal returns (CAR), the buy and hold abnormal returns (BHAR) and the Jensen measure (alpha) to study long horizon of up to 60 months, as part of the calendar analysis, and 36 months in the event approach. The results show negative and significant long-term abnormal returns on acquiring companies either on event time or in calendar analysis for different horizons.