Are Mergers and Acquisitions Beneficial? The Case of Tata’s Corus Buy

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions in the recent times have emerged as the top strategic moves of companies world over in the face of globalization. Not only survival and growth, such strategies have now been the preferred options even for establishing and/or expanding international presence of the forward looking corporate giants. India witnessed the largest ever overseas acquisition in April 2007 when Tata Steels Limited acquired the Anglo Dutch steel producer Corus Group Plc (Corus) for US$ 12.11 billion. After this acquisition Tata Steel emerged as the fi fth largest steel producer in the world. However, there have been serious doubts and apprehensions regarding whether the acquisition has been benefi cial for TATA or not. Since TATA has already lived the acquisition for around three years by now, one is tempted to discover the hidden truth. In the present paper, an attempt has been made to see how TATA has been affected by its acquiring of Corus group. For this purpose the authors have analyzed the pre and post acquisition performance of TATA with the help of the various fi nancial ratios of the company. The paper concludes that TATA is apparently in benefi t of its buying of Corus and still to benefi t in the long run from capital and technology of Corus. Keywords: merger, acquisition, fi nancial ratio.

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