Does the Merger-Related Legislation in the Nation of the M&A Target Company Affect the Probability of the Pre-Merger Deal Failure?

Diploma Thesis from the year 2016 in the subject Business economics - Business Management Corporate Governance grade: 1.5 Utrecht University course: International Management language: English abstract: The paper examines the relationship between the nation of an M&A transaction's target company and the probability of deal completion/ pre-merger failure based on a sample of transactions proposed by Dutch bidders during the period ranging from 2003 to 2015 with other Dutch companies; British (UK); or American (US) targets. By the logistic regression analysis the US-targeted deals were found to be associated with higher probabilities of pre-merger failure which is aimed to be explained by applying a mediation analysis of several country-specific indicators potentially affecting the deal completion. This way four factors which are addressed in the theoretical part of the paper (including the restrictiveness of the merger control mechanisms effectiveness of corporate-related legislation and the time and complexity of contract enforcement) were found to be the mediators of the relationship between the target nation and pre-merger failure. Additionally according to the regression results transactions conducted during the end of a merger wave are expected to be less likely completed than the onesnegotiated in the earlier or later stages regardless of the target nation.