Leadership in Business: Factor of Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions in the BRICS Countries

The article is aimed at identifying specific characteristics of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions involving BRICS countries as a factor of developing new international leader companies. Research approaches are used at macro- and microlevels. At the macro-level, new features of the world economy globalization, prospects for the emergence of a new business environment, and business models are summarized. The focus is on the Emerging Global Challengers of the BRICS countries (The Boston Consulting Group (2016a) Meet the new challengers. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/globalization-growth-meet-new-challengers.aspx . Accessed 22 Oct 2017; The Boston Consulting Group (2016b) The 2016 M&A Report. Masters of the Corporate Portfolio. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/strategy-corporate-development-m-a-report.aspx . Accessed 22 Oct 2017; The Boston Consulting Group (2016c) Global leaders, challengers, and champions. The engines of emerging markets. https://www.bcg.com/publications/2016/growth-global-leaders-challengers-champions.aspx Accessed 23 Oct 2017). The choice of this group of countries was made due to the fact that Chinese and Indian companies constitute the majority among the companies of rapidly developing economies (RDE). In addition, despite the negative assessments of the prospects for the development of cooperation in the BRICS format, in September 2017 another summit of this group was held. Based on the use of statistical methods and data from the Bloomberg terminal, it was revealed that for the period from 2000 to 2015, the number and value of M&A transactions involving BRICS countries increased by seven and two times, respectively. However, the bulk of transactions are either in-country (and the target company and the buyer company are registered in one country) or with the participation of companies outside the BRICS countries. Starting from 2007 (except for 2011), companies from the BRICS countries in monetary terms have been net buyers; before 2007, they had been net targets, with the greatest impact on this result being the dynamics of M&A transactions involving Chinese companies.