Measuring the Effect of Mergers in Greece with the Use of Financial Ratios: A Bootstrapped Approach

Abstract

In this study a bootstrapped data analysis from financial statement analysis is proposed to evaluate the short-run operating gains from mergers of Greek listed firms after the outbreak of the sovereign debt crisis in Greece. The examined sample consists of thirty Greek firms, in order to investigate the degree of operating gains from mergers, during a five-year-period inside the debt crisis in Greece. The results reveal that a year before and a year after the merger event, the sample firms were unable to generate short-run operating gains to several financial ratios. Also, we conclude that the use of the standard, normality based, t-test for inference between financial ratios should be done with caution.