Do Acquisitions Generate Long-Term Returns For Acquirer Companies?, ¿Generan Las Adquisiciones Rendimientos A Largo Plazo Para Las Empresas Adquirientes?

In this study we extend the previous empirical evidence on the impact that an announcement of acquisition has on the quotes of acquirers traded in the Spanish stock market. If the stock market is efficient, the announcement of an acquisition would be immediately incorporated in the price (quote) both of the target firm and the acquirer, reflecting if the operation generates or destroy value. However, evidence from other markets shows the existence of significant abnormal returns that extend over long periods of time after this sort of events. As the estimation and testing of long-run abnormal returns is under certain controversy we analyse the long-term after performance of a sample of Spanish listed acquirers employing a variety of methods in order to assure the robustness of our results. We find that acquirers gain long–term positive abnormal returns when the acquisition is paid with cash, it is a crossborder acquisition of an unrelated industry target firm, when the target is an unlisted firm and of a related industry. Nevertheless, we do not find significant long-run abnormal performance when we take into account the relative size of the target firm and the leverage