Företagsförvärv

: En eventstudie om abnormal avkastning på kort sikt

Abstract

The number of completed acquisitions on the stock market has increased over the years. Acquisitions aim to create growth and competitiveness through synergies, increase market shares or through diversification. The purpose of this study is to describe how the market reacts when announcing an acquisition, and whether there is any relation between the market reaction, the economic cycle and the acquisition strategy. This study examines the market reaction when announcing an acquisition, for listed companies on the Swedish stock market during the period 2010 to 2020. This study is based on the arbitrage theory, the effective market hypothesis, the signaling theory, behavioral finance and other relevant studies. This study has applied a quantitative statistical event study as the main methodology to analyz the market reaction when announcing an acquisition. A multiple linear regression analysis was performed, which examined the relationship between the market reaction, the economic cycle and the acquisition strategy. The results from the event study showed that the average abnormal return was greatest on the event day but on average close to zero. For the majority of the acquisition announcements, it was not possible to determine any significant differences in abnormal returns. This study revealed that the market did not react more deviating than expected. Furthermore, the regression analysis indicated that neither the economic cycle nor the acquisition strategy had any significant effect on abnormal returns. Which means that the market reaction was not affected by neither the current economic situation or the companies acquisition strategy.