The Impact of M&As on the Competitive Positioning of European Energy Firms and Market Power Concentration on EU National Energy Markets

Natalia Wasilewska, Mirosław Wasilewski, Serhiy Zabolotnyy and Dmytro Osiichuk ()
Additional contact information
Natalia Wasilewska: Department of Economics and Finance, Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce, 25-369 Kielce, Poland
Mirosław Wasilewski: Department of Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Serhiy Zabolotnyy: Department of Finance, Warsaw University of Life Sciences-SGGW, 02-787 Warsaw, Poland
Dmytro Osiichuk: Department of Finance, Kozminski University, 03-301 Warsaw, Poland

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 23, 1-19

Abstract: By studying M&A deals completed by European energy and power companies between 2002 and 2021, the paper inquires into the impact of corporate consolidation on the competitive positioning of individual energy firms and the concentration of market power on the national energy markets in the EU countries. Our evidence suggests that the European energy market may be moving towards a greater concentration of market power as market leaders are shown to primarily acquire their peers from national markets, while outsiders are more likely to diversify into non-energy sectors, which may further endanger their competitive positioning in the future. We also find that M&As allow energy and power companies to substantially increase their market share within national markets. The said impact is stronger in case of cross-border deals, including those within and outside of the EU. At the same time, only cross-border deals are associated with sufficiently strong revenue growth to advance firms’ relative positioning within national markets. The relative positioning of firms in the EU market remains unaffected by M&A activities, which may be indicative of extreme rigidity and segmentation of the EU market. While at the country level, M&As are found to contribute to a reduction in market concentration measured by a number of indicators, this negative link is documented to be entirely driven by non-core acquisitions involving targets from non-energy industries.

Keywords: mergers and acquisitions; competition; European Union; energy and power generation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/23/8798/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/23/8798/ (text/html)

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:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:23:p:8798-:d:980455

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().