The fundamental economics of the European insurance industry and specifically the impact of the recent economic crisis on the financial services sector are likely to cause a wave of M&A transactions in the insurance sector. An event study of the previous M&A cycle in the European insurance industry shows that M&A transactions on average achieve short-term value creation. However, there is a significant dispersion among individual transactions and, in the long term, the average M&A transaction destroys value.

Andreas Schertzinger identifies determinants of successful transactions, such as transaction timing and diversifying transaction strategy, through a multivariate statistical analysis. Two case studies illustrate success factors specifically related to the conduct of transactions in greater detail.

Autorentext
Dr. Andreas Schertzinger promovierte bei Prof. Dr. Dirk Schiereck am Stiftungslehrstuhl Bank- und Finanzmanagement der European Business School Oestrich-Winkel. Er ist heute als Unternehmensberater für McKinsey & Company, Inc., New York, tätig.

Zusammenfassung
This thesis takes up a very acutely relevant topic: Do M&A transactions in the European insurance sector create value in the short- and long-term? After national consolidation of the European banking and insurance markets had p- gressed in the 2nd half of the 1990s, the recent years showed an increasing amount of cross-border M&A especially in the banking sector. This development is surprising in light of the M&A paradox, according to which the rate of successful bank transactions is very low, yet the number of size of completed transactions constantly increases. The current empirical evidence gives reason to devote a comprehensive a- demic analysis to M&A in the European insurance industry. Furthermore, research to this topic area shows a significant industry-specific gap and largely an absence of respective empirical studies. Research concerned with the overall success of European M&A transactions are extremely rare to date, and the state of knowledge on the success of cross-border transactions in the European - surance industry are very limited.

Inhalt

Overview of M&A in the European Insurance Industry.- Recent Studies on the Success of Insurance Transactions.- Value Creation by M&A in the European Insurance Industry - an Empirical Investigation.- Case Studies on Value Creation by M&A in the European Insurance Industry.