Shareholder wealth effects from mergers and acquisitions in the Greek banking industry

This paper examines the shareholder wealth effects of mergers and acquisitions in the Greek banking industry from 1995 to 2001, using the “event study methodology”. The results suggest that targets’ shareholders earned significant abnormal returns upon the announcement of horizontal and diversifying deals. On the other hand, bidders’ shareholders had significant losses in cases of horizontal and zero effects in diversifying deals. Although mergers and acquisitions in the Greek banking industry are not found to be value-enhancing, they can be rationalized as an external growth strategy, whose goal was to strengthen the position of the participants in the domestic market and help them become more tenacious in a fiercely competitive international environment.