The Impact of Mergers and Acquisitions on the Performance of the Greek Banking Sector: An Event Study Approach

This paper examines the impact of Greek mergers and acquisitions on the performance of the Greek Banking Sector during the period 1996-2009. With the use of event study methodology, we reject the “semi-strong form” of Efficient Market Hypothesis (EMH) of the Athens Stock Exchange. We find that ten days prior to the announcement of a merger and acquisition, shareholders receive considerable and significant positive cumulative average abnormal returns (CAARs). Also the results show that significant positive CAARs are gained upon the announcement of horizontal and diversifying bank deals. The overall results indicate that bank mergers and acquisitions have no impact and do not create wealth. We also examine operating performance of the Greek Banking Sector by estimating twenty financial ratios. Findings show that operating performance does not improve, following mergers and acquisitions. There are also controversial results when comparing merged to non-merged banks.