Stay close to me: What do ESG scores tell about the deal timing in M&A transactions?

Cardillo Giovanni and Harasheh Murad

Finance Research Letters, 2023, vol. 51, issue C

Abstract: We examine how sustainability divergences between acquirer and target firms affect the deal timing in M&A transactions. Using a unique sample of 415 M&A deals from 2002 to 2020, we show that higher discrepancies between acquirers and targets in their pre-deal sustainability performance lead to an increase in the deal timing. Then, we explore which constituent pillar of the ESG ratings drives our main findings, and we find that differences in how both firms deal with governance and social issues increase the deal timing. Our results are robust to alternative specifications and the inclusion of country macro and socioeconomic features.

Keywords: Sustainability; M&A; Deal timing; Organizational culture; Cultural disparities; ESG orientation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 D23 G34 M14 M21 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1544612322006742
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:finlet:v:51:y:2023:i:c:s1544612322006742

DOI: 10.1016/j.frl.2022.103498

Access Statistics for this article

Finance Research Letters is currently edited by R. Gençay

More articles in Finance Research Letters from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().