How Portuguese family-firms deal with the wall-phenomena in M&As

: a case-study of Nors group, Delta Cafés group, Naps Parts & Solutions and MCoutinho group

Abstract

Mergers and Acquisitions (M&As) are an inorganic way of growth. However, they are the riskier ways presenting a high failure rate. This is due to researchers and managers investigated M&As from fragmented perspectives that led to some factors being exogenous when analysing an M&A. A holistic view should be emphasised to understand the interdependency of the several constructs. Moreover, not all M&As are alike. Each acquisition must be framed into the five types of acquisitions to have a better understanding of their complexity. An M&A begins with the pre-merger stage where the acquirer plans a growth strategy, identifies, and screens a target firm, carries out the due diligence and negotiates. The post-merger stage comes next with the integration and strategy implementation phase. There is no consensus among researchers on how long the integration stage should last, running fast with a maximum of 100 days or if it should be taken slow to run smoothly. The Wall Phenomena divides the pre-merger and post-merger of the acquisition. This division brings risk and uncertainty that are prejudicial to the success of the M&A. There is also, a third stage to evaluate the performance, the evaluation stage. The most appropriate moment to measure the M&A success is three years after the deal is signed. Inspired by my Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions module Professor Dr. Florian Bauer from Lancaster University Management School (LUMS) and his studies about M&As, this dissertation will cover the Wall-Phenomena topic, regarding the analysis of four giant Portuguese familiar firms. The Lancaster 3S Model is a tool that, if well used, facilitates scholars and managers in reaching success over all the stages of an M&A. This tool creates the constructs’ interdependency needed to obtain the bigger picture.

Date of Award	10 Oct 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Ana Madsen (Supervisor)