Is Fintech M&A Value-additive?

: evidence from acquirers stock returns

Abstract

The following dissertation present an analysis of the effect of the short-term and long-term performance in Fintech mergers and acquisitions. The analysis focus on the performance of acquirers that acquire Fintech firms between 2018 and 2019. A sample of 79 acquiring firms is analyzed in this research and an event study was performed. The short-term performance was measured by calculating the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) around the announcement date in four different event windows estimated by three different models. The mean cumulative abnormal returns are positive around 2% and 3%. In the research was proven that the acquisition of targets of the Fintech industry lead in general to positive and significant market reactions only with few exceptions for the Market Model and Mean-Adjusted model in one of the event windows. The short-term performance negatively depends only on the deal amount acquisition. The long-term performance was measured by calculating the buy-and-hold abnormal returns (BHARs) for 1 day after the announcement date to 200 days after the announcement date. The same methods to calculate expected returns were used as in the calculation of CARs. The buy-and hold abnormal returns are negative for the three methods used. The long-term performance negatively depends on the short-term performance.

Date of Award	5 Feb 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	João Andrade (Supervisor)