An Empirical Examination of Efficiency Theory of Mergers in Emerging Market India

Abstract

The “inconclusive” existing literature on long-term horizon studies of mergers is the motivation of this paper to reexamine the post-merger performance and explore the reasons of unsatisfactory performance. We test efficiency theory of mergers by examining the industry adjusted operating performance of mergers. Unlike the existing literature which examines the operating performance of mergers at end level (ROA or ROE), we not only examine the operating performance at end level but also analyze the performance at each stage of operation i.e . material, labor, overheads, tax, interest and sales. We do not find synergy creation at the end level ( i.e . ROA level). However, we observe synergy creation at tax and interest level and synergy destruction at labor and overheads level. The performance of different categories of mergers which are group/non-group mergers, related/unrelated mergers and BIFR/non-BIFR mergers is also examined. Factors explaining the post-merger profitability, efficiency and cash flows are also examined.