The impact of MA on company performance: Evidence from Croatia

摘要

In the recent years the importance and value of M&As have reached enormous proportions. However, while some studies reported beneficial influence of M&A on companies' success, the others found this influence to be neutral or even negative. Furthermore, the majority of studies analysed M&A activity in USA and UK, therefore this paper aims to detect the consequences of M&A on the performance of companies operating within under-researched European area i.e. Croatia. The analysis was conducted on Croatian companies that were involved in M&A activity in period from 2008 to 2011. The obtained results clearly indicated statistically insignificant differences in target companies' performances before and after M&A activity. The same results, i.e. statistically insignificant differences, were obtained even when performance of target companies (after acquisition) was compared to the peer companies. Finally, the results showed that despite the growing influence of foreign investors in Croatian economy, the majority of M&A activity was carried out by Croatian companies.