The Announcement Effect of M&As and the Impact on Short-Term Performance : An event study on acquiring firms listed on the Swedish stock market

Abstract: M&A has for decades been an important topic within the corporate world as well as financial research, due to its performance and the impact it generates. The main objective of this study is to explore the effect of M&A announcements on the short-term performance of acquiring firms on the Swedish stock market. By conducting an event study with a sample of 194 M&As in various industries from 2007-01-01 to 2018-02-07, we are able to retrieve abnormal returns, analysing cumulative abnormal returns in order to measure the effect the announcements have on the stock price. Three performance factors are included in order to get an understanding of the potential impact they have, and if so, how strong that impact is. The performance factors are (1) payment method, (2) diversified versus focused M&As, and (3) cross-border versus domestic M&As. The empirical findings tell us that the abnormal returns are significant for most industries, and to a great extent positive. The performance variables only show significance for cash as a payment method where it generates a negative effect on the main event window (-1, +1). With these findings we hope to contribute to existing research by creating higher awareness to society and organisations about the performance M&As bring.