In the current globalised economy, mergers and acquisitions are being progressively more used the world over, for increasing competitiveness of companies through gaining better market share, expansion of the portfolio to reduce business risk, to capitalize on the economies of scale and for entering new geographies, etc. This research study was intended to analyze the consequence of going global market through merger and acquisition and traders long and short term earnings .Thereby study the impact of mergers on the financials by examining some pre- merger and post-merger financial ratios, with the sample of firms chosen as three major mergers/acquisitions of TATA Group. The results put forward that there are small variations in terms of post merger financial performance of the joint firm is not considerably different from the aggregate performance of the acquirer and target companies before the merger.

Merger and acquisitions have emerged as chief forces in the contemporary financial and economic environment. They have been a source of corporate growth and in India, it has changed radically after the liberalization of Indian economy. Mergers and acquisitions came up as one of the most efficient methods of such corporate restructuring, and became an essential part of the long-term trade strategy of corporates in India.

The sole three chief objectives at the back any M&A transaction were found to be:

• Improving Profitability
• Rapid growth in scale and closer time to market
• Acquirement of new technology

Many in corporate India would be jealous of the Tata Group’s strategy around mergers and acquisition. In the past 8 years, the Tata Group had made 35 overseas acquisitions, including coal and iron ore mines, adding up Rs 78,000 crore, mostly in the past 3 years.

Research problem

To examine the consequence of going global through mergers and acquisitions and the trader’s long term and short term earnings respectively. This would aid in studying the impact on companies financials past the merger or acquisition. To also determine the enterprise value of the corporation by comparing it with the peer group and studying the value of the firm

Objective of the study

• To analyze the a thorough detailed case study of 3 companies of Tata Group who merged or acquired in the past years.
• To evaluate the closing price of 3 companies previous to and post acquisition
• To weigh up the key financial ratios of 3 companies pre and post acquisition
• To do valuation of two companies through enterprise value and contrast the value with peer group and examine in detail

Review of literature

The subsequent studies are the few existing work reviewed which were conducted by researchers in the sight of analyzing the financial performance during and post merger activity across different time periods.

Effect of mergers on corporate performance in India, writer Mrs. Vardhana Pawaskar (2001), considered the impact of mergers on corporate performance. A case study, assessed the financial performance of a cloth unit by using ratio analysis. It compared the before and after merger performance of the corporations between 1992 and 2000 to identify their financial character. The study found that the financial fitness was never in the strong zone during the whole study period and ratio analysis highlighted that decision-making incompetence accounted for a good number of the problems.

Forecasting the viability and operational efficiency by Mr Mulla through use of ratio analysis, suggested matching up efficiency and success of all facets of management and put the company on a lucrative footing. The study of a sample of firms, restructured through mergers, showed that the merging firms were at the inferior end in terms of liquidity of the industry. The merged firms gave better performance than industry in terms of profitability.

Mergers and operating performance by Mr. Mantravadi: An Indian perspective, attempted to examine the impact of mergers on the performance post industrial reforms, by investigating some pre- and post-merger financial ratios, with chosen sample firms, and all mergers linking public and private limited companies The study results suggested that there are minor variations in terms of impact on financial performance of subsequent mergers across different intervals of time in India. It also indicated that for mergers between the same groups of companies in India, there has been deterioration in performance and ROI.

Mergers & acquisitions in the banking sector presents the Indian scenario, author Mr. Selvam (2007) has analyzed the impacts of stock price changes to mergers and acquisitions behavior taken place in banking industry with particular reference to private and public sector banks. Found that share prices are market sensitive. From the financial analysis it was noted that greater part of the banks went for branch extension and this has affected profitability to some extent and it resulted in harmful competition among the players.

To add up the review of literature, many offerings have offered diverse perspectives of merger in different industries globally and explained the valuation techniques followed by merging companies, and shareholders possessions effect due to merger. From the review of several papers evaluating the pre and post merger performance of merged companies, it is incidental that majority of the studies powerfully support the concept of improved post merger performance due to merger and it is valuable to the acquirer companies.

METHODOLOGY

Methodology of the study

Sample selection

There are several mergers within the TATA Group during the study period from

01.04.2006 to 31.03.2009. For the purpose of corporate analysis, it was decided to select three of the highest deals which merged/ acquired under the TATA Group during the study period. Hence, the sample size of this study is confined to 3. Besides, while selecting the sample, following points were taken into account.

– Acquirer and target companies ought to belong to the same industry.

– Availability of information on the merger and industry.

Period of the study

The present study covers a period of one year from April 1, 2006 to March 31, 2009. But in order to evaluate the financial performance of sample companies on a comparative basis, 15-20 days before merger and after merger were considered.