Mergers and Acquisitions: A study of the performance of North American oil and gas firms

Employing a quantitative approach, this dissertation contributes to the theories on the performance of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of international oil and gas (O&G) companies. The study uses both an event study and accounting based methodology to assess both the short and long term impact of the announcement of a merger or acquisition on the acquiring firm. The study focuses on North American firms between 1998 and 2002, a period during which a major consolidation of the O&G sector occurred. Evidence collected from the event study and accounting methodology enables this dissertation to divide the performance of a merger or acquisition into long term and short term parameters respectively. There appears to be a significant negative relationship in the short term performance of acquiring firms, while long term parameters offer no obvious indication on whether the announcements of mergers or acquisitions positively or negatively impact on the acquiring O&G firms. Furthermore, the study endorses the theory that over the short term the premium paid by the acquiring firm for the target firm has a positive relationship with the acquirer’s performance while the medium of payment used by the acquirer to purchase the target firm can have a significant impact on the performance of the merger or acquisition; it is found that cash payments have a positive relationship with short term performance, while stock payments show a negative relationship. Lastly, there appears to be no consensus on whether the size of the acquirer relative to the target firm has any significant effect on the performance of the acquiring firm in the short term. However, interestingly for the long term performance parameter, namely the return on assets (ROA), small acquisitions perform significantly worse than large acquisitions. This suggests that greater asset productivity and growth through large acquisitions, reduces the negative impacts of industry turmoil in the long-run