Acquisitions from UK firms into emerging markets

Abstract

The paper investigates acquisitions into emerging markets from UK acquirers during the period 1992 to 2003. We find that large firms experiencing slower growth in the domestic market, but possessing more liquid assets have a higher likelihood of making acquisitions in emerging markets. When we use firms making acquisitions only in the domestic and developed markets as control samples, we find in both cases that whilst firm size has a positive impact, the transaction value relative to the size of the acquirer has a negative effect on the probability of acquisitions. Finally, the evidence suggests that corporate governance quality of target nations affect acquisition decisions but the impact differs across different geographical regions. © 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.