The Role of Cross-border Mergers and Acquisitions in Foreign Direct Investment: Evidence from the Chinese Stock Market

In this treatise, we provide empirical evidence based on stock and operating performance measures to show how cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are different from domestic transactions from the perspective of foreign acquirers. We analyze the shareholder wealth effect from 663 domestic and international M&As announced by Chinese corporations between 1994 and 2006. We have uncovered some differences between national and cross-border M&As. We find that foreign acquirers experience significantly higher stock and operating performance than transactions carried out only by domestic firms. Higher target gains for cross-border transactions are consistent with the acquirer's ability to correctly value or capture synergies in cross-border takeovers. We also examine the source of wealth gains in Chinese targets of foreign acquirers. We find that the exchange rate and taxes are more important in justifying the target premium in foreign takeovers than in domestic takeovers. Taken together, our results suggest that the realization of synergy is the main motive behind foreign takeovers. We also analyze the role of corporate governance in cross-border M&As. Consistent with our hypothesis, the dummy for B shares or H shares is positively related with the takeover premium, indicating that strong corporate governance standards influence the valuation process in transition economies.