Sapienza Università di Roma

International Banking

Lecture Seventeen

Brief introduction to Mergers &

Acquisitions

Prof. G. Vento
April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento
 OVERVIEW
• Differences between Merges and Acquisitions
• Difference between hostile and friendly taking over.
• Motives behind M & A

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Definitions
• Merger: One firm absorbs the assets and liabilities of the
other firm in a merger. The acquiring firm retains its
identity. In many cases, control is shared between the two
management teams. Transactions were generally
conducted on friendly terms.
• In a consolidation, an entirely new firm is created.
• Mergers must comply with applicable state laws. Usually,
shareholders must approve the merger by a vote.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

• Acquisition: Traditionally, the term described a
situation when a larger corporation purchases the
assets or stock of a smaller corporation, while control
remained exclusively with the larger corporation.
• Often a tender offer is made to the target firm (friendly) or
directly to the shareholders (often a hostile takeover).
• Transactions that bypass the management are considered
hostile, as the target firm’s managers are generally opposed to
the deal.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Merger negotiations
• Friendly Acquisition:
The acquisition of a target company that is willing to be taken over.
Usually, the target will accommodate overtures and provide access
to confidential information to facilitate the scoping and due
diligence processes.
• Hostile Takeover:
A takeover in which the target has no desire to be acquired and
actively rebuffs the acquirer and refuses to provide any confidential
information.
The acquirer usually has already accumulated an interest in the
target (20% of the outstanding shares) and this preemptive
investment indicates the strength of resolve of the acquirer.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

• Target: the corporation being purchased, when there
is a clear buyer and seller.
• Bidder: The corporation that makes the purchase,
when there is a clear buyer and seller. Also known as
the acquiring firm.
• Friendly: The transaction takes place with the
approval of each firm’s management
• Hostile: The transaction is not approved by the
management of the target firm.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

Types of Mergers
• Horizontal Mergers
- Between competing companies
• Vertical Mergers
- Between buyer-seller relation-ship companies
• Conglomerate Mergers
- Neither competitors nor buyer-seller relationship

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

• 1. Synergy: The most used word in M&A is synergy, which is
the idea that by combining business activities, performance
will increase and costs will decrease. Essentially, a business
will attempt to merge with another business that has
complementary strengths and weaknesses.

• Mv (A) + Mv(B) < Mv(AB)

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

• Revenue Synergy :
• Market power , larger company will attract more
customers (more brand awareness).
• Complementary products .
• Reduce competion.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Cost Synergy
• Bulk discounts : be able to attract better prices.
• Market efficiency : one entity doing advertisements
instead of two.
• Reduced fixed overhead costs : overlapping
departments and resources.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Financial Synergy
• Borrow in Bulk : get better rates (borrowing interest rates)
• Save in Bulk : get better rates (deposit saving rates)
• Diversification of Risk : more companies in portfolio , less
systemic risk.
• Offsetting tax losses.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

• Growth: Mergers can give the acquiring company an
opportunity to grow market share without having to really
earn it by doing the work themselves - instead, they buy a
competitor's business for a price. Usually, these are called
horizontal mergers. For example, a beer company may choose
to buy out a smaller competing brewery, enabling the smaller
company to make more beer and sell more to its brand-loyal
customers.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Increased
market power
Learning and
Overcoming
developing
entry barriers
new capabilities

Reshaping firm’s Making an Cost of new

Acquisition product
competitive scope
development

Increased Increase speed

diversification Lower risk than to market
developing new
products

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 • Diversification: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.”
Current finance literature seriously questions the merits of
this reasoning: Why does the management know better
than the shareholders how to achieve diversification?
• It is usually the case that shareholders can diversify much
more easily than can a corporation.
• Individuals can easily diversify by buying shares in mutual
funds.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 • Business valuation

• The five most common ways to valuate a business are

• asset valuation,
• historical earnings valuation,
• future maintainable earnings valuation,
• relative valuation (comparable company &
comparable transactions),
• discounted cash flow (DCF) valuation

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

Merger financing
How the Deal is Financed

Cash Transaction
– The receipt of cash for shares by shareholders in the target company.
Share Transaction
– The offer by an acquiring company of shares or a combination of
cash and shares to the target company’s shareholders.
Going Private Transaction (Issuer bid)
– A special form of acquisition where the purchaser already owns a
majority stake in the target company.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Leveraged buyouts

• In a LBO a buyer uses debt to

finance the acquisition of a
company (usually LBOs are a way
to take a public company
private, or put a company in the
hands of the current
management, MBO).

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Corporate restructuring

• Reasons: poor performance of a division,

financial exigency, or a change in the strategic
orientation of the company.
• Different forms of corporate selloffs:
disinvestitures, corporate downsizing (cost and
workforce restructuring), financial
restructuring (alternation in the capital structur
of the firm).

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Merger Approval Procedures
• In the United States, each state has a statute that
autorizes merges and acquisitions of corporations.
• Special Committees of the Board of Directors:
the board of directors may choose to form a special
committee of the to evaluate the merger proposal.
• Fairness Options:
It’s common for the board to retain an outside valutation
firm.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Purchase of assets compared with
purchase of stock

• The most common form of merger and

acquisition involves purchasing the stock of the
merged or acquired concern.
• An alternative is to purchase the target
company’s assets.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Assumption of the seller’s
liabilities
• If the acquirer buys all the target’s stock, it
assumes the seller’s liabilities (successor
liability).
• In cases in which a buyer purchases a
substantial portion of the target’s assets, the
courts have ruled that the buyer is responsible
for the seller’s liabilities (de facto merger).

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Reverse mergers
• A reverse merger is a merger in which a
private company may go public by
merging with an already public company
that often is inactive or a corporate
shell.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Holding Companies
• The acquiring company may choose to
purchase only a portion of the target’s stock
and act as a holding company, which is a
company that owns sufficient stock to have a
controlling interest in the target.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Advantages of holding companies
• Lower cost. With a holding company structure, an
acquired can attain control of a target for a much
smaller investment than would be necessary in a 100%
stock acquisition.
• No control premium. Because 51% of the shares were
not purchased.
• Control with fractional ownership. As noted, working
control may be established with less than 51% of the
target company’s shares.
• Approval not required. To the extent that it is allowable
under federal and state laws, a holding company may
simply purchase shares in a target without having to
solicit the approval of the target company’s
shareholders.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Disadvantages
• Multiple taxation. The holding company structure adds another layer
to the corporate structure. Normally, stockholders income is subject to
double taxation.
• Antitrust problems. A holding company combination may face some of
the same antitrust concerns with which an outright acquisition is
faced.
• Lack of 100% ownership. Although the fact that a holding company
can be formed without a 100% share purchase may be a source of cost
savings, it leaves the holding company with other outside shareholders
who will have some controlling influence in the company. This may
lead to disagreements over the direction of the company.

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Strategic Alliances

• An alternative to joint venture.

• More flexible concept than joint venture. The
added flexibility allows to the firms to quickly
establish links when they are needed.
• The downside of alliances is the greater
potential for opportunistic behavior by the
partners.
• Given the usual loose nature of alliances, there
is a tendency to have posturing by the partners
so that they create a need for each other.
April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento
History of Merger Waves
• 1st wave 1895-1905 Horizontal mergers
End with the passage and enforcement of antitrust
legislation.
• 2nd wave 1920-1929 Vertical mergers
Ends with stock market crash.
• 3rd wave 1960-1971 Conglomerate mergers
Ends with recession and oil shocks of early 1970s.
• 4th wave 1982-1989 Hostile takeovers, LBOs,
MBOs
Ends with recession of late 1980s
• 5th wave 1993-2000 Stock-based friendly mergers
May have ended with the burst of internet bubble

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 The fifth Wave 1992-1999

 1992-1999 Strategic Mergers

Very large in size and number
1998: over $1.5 trillion in deals
Driven by: Deregulation, economic forces,
technology, globalization
Most done in cash (unlike 1980s)

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento

 Examples:
• Deutsche Bank – Bankers Trust
• Citicorp – Travelers Insurance
• (Reigle –Neal 1994, Bliley Act 1999)
• AOL – Netscape

April 2013 Internaitonal Banking / Prof. G.Vento