Authors: Georgios Patsiolas, Ioannis Tsakalos

Title: The effect of ESG criteria on UK Mergers and Acquisitions after the Brexit Referendum

Abstract

Our study investigates how Merger and Acquisition deal characteristics are influenced by Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) criteria of UK based acquiring firms after the Brexit Referendum. Our scientific results uncover many unused bits of knowledge. To begin with, we look at the deal characteristics of the bidding firms and discover that they prefer cash payment and single bids. Second, we discover that target firms with medium and high ESG score levels are more likely to be acquired by firms with high ESG score levels. Third, we reveal that the  higher  ESG score a company has, the lower  lower bid premium intents to pay. Finally, we observe that abnormal return variable is positive and statistically significant when an acquirer announce a Merger or Acquisition deal.  Our results show robustness in various tests and different proxies.