French bank mergers and acquisitions performance
In this paper, we empirically investigate the impact of mergers and acquisitions on French bank performance. Performance is measured by potential gains in efficiency and value creation. We first analyzed efficiency using the data envelopment analysis (DEA) under input oriented with variable returns to scale to obtain the efficiency scores. Second, we analyzed the impact on French bank value creation following mergers-acquisitions operations of a set of control variables (model 1) and explicative variables measuring strategic similarities between bidders and targets (model 2). The sample studied is composed of French bank mergers-acquisitions happening between 1996 and 2006 and implying one of the 14 greatest French banking groups. Empirical result showed that mergers and acquisitions have been traduced by an improvement in the overall efficiency by 17.82% and a shareholder value reduction by 5.14%.