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STUDENT NAME:

ABORODE Aderemi Olugbemiga

STUDENY NUMBER:

079019717

PROGRAMME OF STUDY:

M. Sc in Finance

CENTRE:

Leadmode

INTAKE:

May, 2008

SUPERVISOR/FORUM:

Dr. C. B Tse/ Blackboard

TITLE :

ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF MERGER AND ACQUISITION ON

CORPORATE PERFORMANCE OF COMMERCIAL BANKS IN NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

Merger and Acquisition (hereinafter interchangeably used as consolidation) is one of the

restructuring tools available to corporate organizations. For such exercise to be adjudged successful,
positive impacts must be felt through improvement in certain performance indicators of such
organizations after the merger. Of recent, banking industry in Nigeria has experienced an
unprecedented level of consolidation on the notion that gains can accrue through scale and scope
economies, increased market power, expense reduction, reduced earnings volatility etc, which
will improve the performance of the banks in the post-merger era. The aim of this research work is
to assess the impact of merger and acquisition on corporate performance of Commercial banks in
Nigeria. The study will rely on secondary data from libraries, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)
Annual and Quarterly Reports, Nigerian Deposit and Insurance Commission (NDIC) quarterly
reports, World Bank Development Research reports, as well as Annual reports of the selected Banks
in Nigeria. Pre-merger and post-merger financial statements of the selected banks will be analyzed
through descriptive statistics and ratios, with a view to ascertain any improvement or otherwise on
some key performance indicators after mergers. Simple regression analysis to compare the premerger and post-merger results will also be employed.

INTRODUCTION

The fundamental question of this research is: to what extent has merger and acquisition
impacted on the performance of Commercial Banks in Nigeria?.The offshoots of this question
are:
(i)

To what extent has Earnings and Profitability, Asset Quality, Liquidity, and Capital
Adequacy impacted on post merger performance of Commercial Banks in Nigeria?

(ii)

What is the relationship between the stock price and merger of Commercial Banks in
Nigeria?

The definitions of selected variables (Earnings and Profitability, Asset Quality, Liquidity, and
Capital Adequacy) are contained in Appendix 1. Quite handful of researches has shown that the
information dissemination of Nigerian Capital Market is at its weak form. Therefore, changes in the
post merger stock price will be considered. Although various researches considered changes in
shares price as result of merger announcement but they are majorly carried out in countries where
the information dissemination is at its strong form.
Among reasons given for consolidation of Banks in Nigeria is higher return to shareholders and
greater impact on Nigerian economy Soludo (2004:2). To achieve this goal among others, the
performance of Banks in Nigeria in post-merger era must be higher than that of pre-merger period.
Therefore, this research which serves as an assessment of Banks in post-merger era is imperative to
determine the extent of the achievement of this goal.

RELATION TO PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Most research studies apply either accounting data to compare the pre-merger and post-merger
performance of merged companies or event study to analyzing merger benefits through evaluation
of the stock market reaction to merger announcements. Recently, correlation between changes in
accounting data and abnormal returns is being used. (Pilloff and Santomero: 1998).
Healy et al (1990) examined the post-merger operating performance of U. S.A merged firms
between 1979 and 1983 using a sample of fifty (50) largest mergers during the period. It was found
out that merged firms have significant improvement in asset productivity relative to their industries
after the merger, leading to higher post-merger operating cash flow returns (1990:2). This is
contrary to previous researches carried out by Ravenscraft and Scherer (1987), and Herman and
Lowenstein (1988) that merged firms have no improvement in their post-operating performance.
Cornett and Tehranian (1992) used the same methodology as Healy et al but involving thirty (30)
merged banks (15 interstate and 15 intrastate) in the U.S.A between 1982 and 1987. It was found
out that merged banks outperformed the industry. This position was supported by the works of
Huizinga et al (2001); Altunbas and Ibanez (2004); Short (1997) and Saunders et al (1998).
Badreldin and Kalhoefer (2009) examined performance of Egyptian merged banks during the period
2002-2007 through calculating their return on equity using the basic ROE. The finding was not all
that conclusive as they found out that not all merged banks have shown significant improvements
in performance and return on equity when compared to their performance before the deals
(2009:2). This implies that the views of Ravenscraft and Scherer (1987), and Herman and
Lowenstein (1988) cannot be completely discarded.
Ikeda and Doi (1983) reviewed performance of forty nine (49) merged firms in Japanese
Manufacturing Industry between 1964 and 1975. They carried out their test on four (4) major
measures of performance Profitability, efficiency, firm growth and research & development. It
was found out that merged firms typically exhibited improvement in profit performance. The
methodology they used was similar to those of Datta et al. (1991), Chaterjee et al. (1992) for other
industries and Ramaswamy (1997), Altunbaz and Ibanez (2004) for the banking sector, where
variety of financial indicators were used to define the performance of firms engaged in mergers.
In conclusion, this study will be based on the approaches by Ikeda and Doi (1983), where variety of
financial indicators were used to define the performance of firms engaged in mergers. Also,
standard event study similar to the one used in Dodd and Warner (1983) will be adopted to
determine the relationship between the stock prices and merger.

PROPOSED METHODS

This study will be based on documents gathering approach which is majorly secondary data
collection method. According to Blaxter et al (2001), using documents can be a relatively
unobtrusive form of research, one which does not necessarily require you to approach respondents
first hand.
Considering dearth of time, due to combination of studies and working, document gathering is
considered as time saving approach Maduabum (1999), Nwabuokei (1986). Unlike interviews,
questionnaires and observations, a document gathering method does not need contact with the
authors. It is also less costly and more convenient when compared with other primary data
collection Ikeagwu (1998). This is necessary considering the impact of global financial meltdown.
Libraries, electronic sources such as Business Source Premier and Google Scholar, books, reports
and WebPages will be consulted for the purpose of literature review. Data will be collected from
various regulatory authorities and banks in Nigeria. Ratio Analysis and Simple Regression Analysis
(through the help of SPSS 15.0 window and Excel) will be adopted for the purpose of analysis.
For the purpose of accounting ratios, pre-merger accounting data (for 2004 and 2005) of the 75
banks that made up the merger will be averaged and compare with the average of post-merger
accounting data of the 24 surviving banks between 2006 and 2007. This time range will be chosen
based on Yener et al.s (2004) and Achtmeyers (1994: 107) suggestion that, two years is sufficient
to avoid alteration and inaccuracy of results. He explains that longer time spans may negatively
affect accuracy of results due to effects of other external economic factors.
For the purpose of event study methodology, the following market model will be used to relate the
return of banks shares after merger to the return of the market.
Rbt = at + btRmt + ebt
Where Rbt (Dependent variable) is the average return of banks shares at time t, Rmt (Independent
variable) is the actual return of the market at time t, ebt is the residual term of the banks shares in the
period t; and at, bt are intercept and slope of the market model regression which will be estimated
by means of ordinary least squares (OLS).
Rbt and Rmt will be gotten from using Holding Period Yield (HPY):
Rbt = (Pbt Pbt-1 + Dbt)/ Pbt-1;
Rmt = (Pmt Pmt-1 )/ Pmt-1
Where Pbt, Pmt are the average daily price of the banks shares and daily price of the market; Pbt-1, Pmt-1 are the
average price of the banks shares in time t-1 and price of the market in time t-1 and Dbt is the average dividend
received on the banks shares at time t.

REFLECTIONS

Prior to December 2005, the deadline for meeting the N25billion Shareholders fund, (which was
previously N2billion) through injection of additional funds or merger and acquisition, there were
eighty nine (89) Banks in Nigeria. This exercise led to 25 surviving banks (two of which merged
afterwards). This means about 64 banks seized to exist by way of merger or liquidation. It is now
5years after; getting financial data of these banks will be an intricate task. While it is not possible to
get these data directly from these banks, regulatory authorities such as Central Bank of Nigeria,
Nigeria Deposit and Insurance Commission etc are contacted with a view of retrieving the data of
these banks from their archives. It is quite disturbing and discouraging considering the level of
reluctance from these authorities to volunteer these data. However, some rating agents and stock
broking firms in Nigeria have been contacted who gave the clue that some of these data could be
purchased. Considering the number of Banks involved, it will cost considerable amount to obtain
these data.
Apart from the availability and associated cost of obtaining the requisite data, there is inherent
problem of the result of this study to be subject to financial data gathered. These financial data
were originally prepared by various banks which might have been subjected to various financial
shenanigans (creative accounting as it is coined) which have to be taken as they are with the
believe that regulatory authorities ought to have prevented this to the barest minimum.
The proposed adoption of ratio analysis has its inherent challenges. Analysis will be on various
banks which might have applied different accounting methods (e.g depreciation, stock valuation,
revaluation etc).
The proposed adoption of regression analysis might generate issues on violation of some
assumptions of regression such as, nonlinearity, non-normality, heteroscedaticity, serial
correlation and multicollinearity. Other issues with respect to sample collection such as data
mining, sample selection bias, look-ahead bias and time-period bias will be another challenge
envisaged in the course of this study. Some of these violations will be tested in the course of the
study and appropriate decision taken along the line.
Considering the combination of working and studies, it is pertinent to note that time will be one of
the constraints to this study. In order to forestall any negative consequence of time constraint, the
study is started earlier as a compensating approach for my tight schedule.
According to Blaxter et al (2001), common ethical issues that may be encountered in research
project are: Confidentiality, Anonymity, Legality and Professionalism. Confidentiality ethical
issue will not arise as the data to be analyzed will be in totals and in averages of all the samples
collected. Where names of banks are mentioned specifically, no ethical issue will be inferred as it
will be based on facts which are public knowledge. As touching anonymity, this is likely to be
violated when using primary data collection method. This study is based on secondary data
collection and the source of the data/information must be appropriately referenced. From the
professionalism perspective, concerted efforts will be made to avoid bias judgments. This will be
possible because quantitative methods will be adopted in analysis. The ethical issue on legality can
barely affect this study.

CONCLUSION

Synergetic effect of any merger and acquisition must be evident after the merger to conclude that
such exercise is a successful one. The recent merger and acquisition that occurred in the Banking
industry in Nigeria is an exercise that needs concerted appraisal to determine the level of its
success. This study is aimed towards assessing the impact of merger and acquisition on corporate
performance of Commercial Banks in Nigeria through the use of accounting data and event study
(market model).
Efforts have been made to gather the financial statements of the existing Commercial Banks in
Nigeria. The Financial Statements of liquidated banks after December, 2005 will be needed for
comparison purpose. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigerian Deposit and Insurance Commission
(NDIC) will be contacted for these. The Nigeria Stock Exchange (NSE) will also be contacted for
the historical stock prices.
Above all, there is high expectation that the outcome of this project will be of tremendous
contribution towards the determination of the level of success in the merger and acquisition exercise
of Banks recently carried out in Nigeria

TIMETABLE
.

TASK

DURATION

Submission of dissertation Proposal

Jan 29, 2010

Documents search and Data gathering

Feb 1 Feb 26, 2010

Writing of Literature Review

Further reading on methodology, data
analysis/evaluation

Feb 1 Mar 15, 2010

Receive of result of dissertation proposal

Amendments to the project based on examiners
comment

Mar 31, 2010

Data Analysis and Interpretation

Apr 5 Apr 15, 2010

Research write up

Jan 15 Apr 15, 2010

Proof reading/Final review

Apr 16 May 30, 2010

Project Submission

May 31, 2010

Feb 15 Mar 31, 2010

Apr 1 Apr 5, 2010

REFERENCES

Achtmeyer, W. F. (1994) Strategic Synergies: Fact or Fiction? In: Rock, M. L., Rock, R. H.,
Sikora,M. The Mergers and Acquisitions Handbook (2nd edition), pp. 107-111.
Altunbas, Y., P. Molyneux, J. Thornton (1997) Big-bank mergers in Europe: An analysis of the cost
implications Economica, 64:317329.
Binder, J.(1998) The Event Study Methodology, Review of Quantitative Finance and
Accounting, 11:111-137
Blaxter, L.,H. Christina, T. Malcolm (2001) How to Research Buckingham Philadelphia: Open
University Press
Bodie, Z., R.Merton (2000) Finance New Jersey: Prentice-Hall
Brown, S., J. Warner (1985) Using Daily Stock Returns: The Case of Event Studies,
Journal of Financial Economics, 14:3-31
Cable, J., K. Holland (1999) Regression vs. non-regression models of normal returns:
Implications for event studies, Economic Letters, 64 : 81-85
Chatterjee, S., M. H. Lubatkin, D. M. Schweiger, Y. Weber (1992) Cultural differences and
shareholder value in related mergers: Linking equity and human capital Strategic Management
Journal, 13: 319-334.
Cornett, M.M., H. Tehranian,(1992) Changes in corporate performance associated with bank
acquisitions, Journal of Financial Economics, 31:211234
Datta, D. K., J. H. Grant., N. Rajagopalan (1991) Management incompatibility and postacquisition autonomy: Effects on acquisition performance In P. Shrivatsava (Ed.), Advances in
Strategic Management, 7: 157-182.
Dodd, P., J. Warner (1983) Corporate governance: A study of proxy contests Journal of Financial
Economics, 11:401-438
Dombrow, J., M. Rodrguez, C.F. Sirmans (2000) A Complete Nonparametric Event
Study Approach Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, 14: 361-380.
Healy, P.M., K.G. Palepu, R.S. Ruback (1992) Does corporate performance improve after mergers?
Journal of financial economics, 31:135-175.

Ikeagwu, E. K. (1998) Groundwork of Research Method and Procedure Enugu: Institute for
Development Studies, UNEC
Ikeda K., N. Doi (1983) The Performances of Merging Firms in Japanese Manufacturing Industry:
1964-75 The Journal of Industrial Economics, 31(3): 257-266
MacKinlay, C. (1997) Event Studies in Economics and Finance Journal of Economic
Literature, 35:13-39
Maduabum, M. A. (1999) Fundamentals of Education Research Onitsha: Commonwealth
Educational Publishers

McWilliams, A., D. Siegel (1997) Event Studies in Management Research: Theoretical

and Empirical Issues Academy of Management Journal, 40(3):626-57
Nigeria Deposit and Insurance Corporation Annual/Quarterly Reports
Nwabuokei, P. O. (1986) Fundamentals of research methodology Enugu: John Jacobs Classic
Publishers
Piloff, S. J., A. M. Santomero (1998) The value effects of bank mergers and acquisitions. In Y.
Amihud & G. Miller (Eds.), Mergers of Financial Institutions (pp. 5978). Norwell, MA: Kluwer
Academic.
Ramaswamy, K. (1997) The performance impact of strategic similarity in horizontal mergers:
evidence from the U.S.banking industry, Academy of Management Journal 40: 697715.
Ravenscraft, D. J., F. M. Scherer (1987) Mergers, sell-offs, and economic efficiency Wash- ington,
DC: Brookings Institution.
Saunders A., I. Walter (1994) Universal banking in the United States. What we could gain? What
we could lose? New York : Oxford University Press.
Saunders, A.(1994) Financial Institutions Management - A modern perspective, New York: Irwin
Short, B. K (1979) The relation between commercial bank profit rates and banking concentration
in canada, western europe, and japan Journal of Banking and Finance, 3: 209-219
Soludo, C. C. (2004) Consolidation and Strengthening Of Banks, Speech Delivered At the Meeting
of Bankers Committee 6th August 2004
Somoye, R.O.C.(2006b) Bank Consolidation in Nigeria: The Macroeconomic Expectations
Babcock Journal of Management and Social Sciences, 5(1): 1597- 3948
Yener A. D.Marques (2008) Mergers and acquisitions and bank performance in
Europe: The role of strategic similarities Journal of Economics and Business, 60: 204222

APPENDICES

Appendix 1
DEFINITION OF VARIABLES/RATIOS USED FOR ANALYSIS OF BANKS
PERFORMANCE BETWEEN 2004 AND 2007
VARIABLES/RATIO
FORMULAR
DEFINITIONS
These indicators measure the
Earnings and Profitability
overall performance of the banks.

Return on Assets

-(NIAT/TA)

Net income after taxes as a percent of

book value of total assets

Return on Equity

- NIAT/Equity)

Net income after taxes as a percent of

book value of total equity capita1

Net Interest Margin

-NIAT/GI)

Net income after taxes as a percent of

book value of Gross Income.

Liquidity

-LQA/TD

Average liquidity

Net loan to Assets

Net loan to Deposits

-NL/TA

Capital Adequacy

Capital to Asset

Loan to Equity

Deposits to Equity

This is the ratio of Liquid Assets to

Total Deposit

Net loan as a percentage of Total

Assets

Net loan as a percentage of Total

Deposits

-NL/TD

These indicators measure the

ability of banks to meet their
obligations as and when due.

-RWC/TA

These indicators measure the

banks capability to meet regulated
capital standards and still attract
loans and deposits.
-

Primary (Risk weighted) capital as a

percent of book value of total assets

Total loans as a percent of book value

of equity capita1

Total deposits as a percent of book

value of equity capita1

-TL/Equity
-TD/Equity

Asset Quality

These measure the quality of

credit of the banks.

-

Nonperforming
to total Credit

Credit

Nonperforming Credit -NPC/SHF

to Shareholders Funds

-NPC/TC

Nonperforming
Credit
percentage of total Credit

as

Nonperforming
Credit
as
percentage of Shareholders Fund

Appendix 2
LIST OF BANKS AFTER CONSOLIDATION AND THE MEMBERS OF THE GROUP
Bank Name
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17

Access Bank Plc

Afribank Plc
Diamond Bank Plc
EcoBank
ETB Plc Equatorial
FCMB Plc
Fidelity Bank Plc
First Bank Plc
First Inland Bank Plc
Guaranty Trust Plc
IBTC-Chartered Bank Plc
Intercontinental Bank Plc
NIB
Oceanic Bank Plc
Platinum-Habib Bank Plc
Skye Bank Plc
Spring Bank Plc

18 Stanbic Bank Ltd

19 Standard Chartered Bank Ltd
20 Sterling Bank Plc
21 UBA Plc
22 Union Bank Plc
23 Unity Bank Plc
24 Wema Bank Plc
25 Zenith International Bank Plc

Members of the Group

Marina Bank, Capital Bank International, Access Bank
Afribank Plc, Afribank International ltd (Merchant Bankers)
Diamond Bank, Lion Bank, African International Bank (AIB)
Eco Bank
Trust Bank (ETB), Devcom Bank
FCMB , Co-operative Development Bank, Nig-American Bank,
Midas Bank
Fidelity Bank, FSB, Manny Bank
FBN plc, FBN Merchant Bank, MBC
IMB, Inland Bank, First Atlantic Bank, NUB
GT Bank
Regent Bank, Chartered Bank, IBTC
Global Bank, Equity Bank, Gateway Bank, Intercontinental Bank
Nigerian International Bank
Oceanic Bank, In't Trust Bank
Platinum Bank, Habib Bank
Prudent Bank, Bond Bank, Coop Bank, Reliance Bank, EIB
Guardian Express Bank, Citizens Bank, Fountain Trust Bank
Omega Bank, Trans-International Bank, ACB
Stanbic Bank
Standard Chartered Bank Ltd
Magnum Trust Bank, NBM Bank, NAL Bank, INMB
Trust Bank of Africa
STB, UBA, CTB
Union Bank, Union Merchant Bank, Universal Trust Bank,
Broad Bank
New Africa Bank, Tropical Commercial Bank, Centre-Point
Bank, Bank of the North, NNB, First Interstate Bank, Intercity
Bank, Societe Bancaire, Pacific Bank
Wema Bank, National Bank
Zenith International Bank Plc

Source: CBN Annual Report for the Year Ended 31st December, 2005

Leicester University School of Management

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