The impact of M&A transactions from private equity and hedge funds Empirical evidence from Austria and Switzerland

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions from private equity and hedge funds. Owing to the recent financial and economic crisis, there is a controversial discussion about the implications of M&As from private equity and hedge funds. It is argued that acquisitions, which are driven by financial investors (FIs) like private equity and hedge funds, have solely short-term profit interests and might be under certain circumstances a source for future financial crisis. Therefore, these FIs should be regulated more severely. Design/methodology/approach - This paper examines the implications of M&As from different types of investors (FIs versus non-FIs) by analysing the wealth effects of Austrian-and Swiss target companies. The authors use the event study methodology to analyze the effects of an merger announcement to see whether the financial markets believe the merger will create or destroy value. Findings - Considering the wealth effects of the different types of investors, the findings of this paper support the necessity of special regulations for FIs such as private equity and hedge funds. This is due to the fact that lower performance is linked to the disgraceful business conduct of an FI who is oriented toward short-term profit at the cost of the target company and their stakeholders. Originality/value - This paper provided an overview of different event study methods and examined the implications of different types of investors by analysing the wealth effects of Swiss and Austrian target companies. It is the first empirical study about the impact of M&A transactions from private equity and hedge funds in Austria and Switzerland.