The long term impact of large acquisitions on the share price performance of acquiring companies listed on the JSE

Abstract

To acquire, or not to acquire? The debate rages on. Companies have been acquiring other companies for centuries, and still, both scholars and practitioners cannot agree on whether acquisitions create and destroy shareholder value. The contradictory results of research into the value creation or value destruction nature of acquisitions has not dampened the will of those corporate executives with a penchant for buying other firms. Globally, and albeit affected by the general well being of the economy, the value and quantities of acquisitions continues to show strong growth. It is largely accepted that large acquisitions are executed as strategic initiatives which should yield benefits in the medium to long‐term. Using event study methodology with a control portfolio model, this study aimed to evaluate the validity of this claim and ascertain if, at the 5% confidence interval, 14 large acquisitions by companies listed on the JSE achieved significant share price gains in the 378 trading days (18 months at an average of 21 trading days per month) after the acquisition. This study concluded that large acquisitions had statistically; no impact on the long term share price returns of JSE listed acquiring companies. Copyright