Sustainability as a stumbling block in closing acquisitions? The joint effect of target and acquirer ESG performance on time to completion

Title data

Just, Ruben ; Sommer, Friedrich ; Heubeck, Tim ; Meckl, Reinhard:
Sustainability as a stumbling block in closing acquisitions? The joint effect of target and acquirer ESG performance on time to completion.
In: Finance Research Letters. Vol. 58, Part B (2023) . - 104422.
ISSN 1544-6123
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.frl.2023.104422

Official URL:

Abstract in another language

Sustainability is currently a major concern in business and society. As environmental, social, and governance (ESG) aspects are also considered in acquisitions, e.g., through time-consuming ESG due diligences, we investigate whether differences in ESG performance delay the closing of acquisitions. Using a sample of global M&A transactions, we measure ESG performance using the Refinitiv Eikon ESG scores and time to completion (TTC) as the number of days between the announcement and closing of a transaction. Our results show that larger differences in ESG performance between acquirer and target lead to shorter TTC when acquirer ESG performance exceeds target ESG performance.

Further data

Item Type:	Article in a journal
Refereed:	Yes
Keywords:	ESG; M&A; sustainability; time to completion; due diligence
Institutions of the University:	Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Business Administration > Chair Business Administration IX - International Management/ Intercultural Management > Chair Business Administration IX - International Management/ Intercultural Management - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Reinhard Meckl Faculties > Faculty of Law, Business and Economics > Department of Business Administration > Chair Business Administration XII with a focus on Controlling > Lehrstuhl Betriebswirtschaftslehre XII with a focus on Controlling - Univ.-Prof. Dr. Friedrich Sommer
Result of work at the UBT:	Yes
DDC Subjects:	300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
Date Deposited:	08 Sep 2023 07:39
Last Modified:	08 Sep 2023 09:05
URI:	https://eref.uni-bayreuth.de/id/eprint/86797