Cross-border M&As: performance of target firms in the UK

When a company starts bringing success, it has 2 ways of growth: organic and inorganic. The organic path follows the company to continue what they are doing best, while the inorganic strategy usually involves acquiring or merging with other companies to grow to another market and dimensions, and diversify their product lines. Nevertheless, the trends from 2021 show, many companies chose M&A deals as their primary strategic option when they consider growth, as the M&A deals closed in 2021 skyrocketed and showed the best numbers in the past. The UK as a country and most importantly as a trading and business market is one of the most interesting and exciting places on the planet. The past decade's data shows, the UK is the third country in the world for its M&A activities including both cross-border and domestic deals. There was a time, 2 decades ago, the UK even led the ranks for some specific categories in the M&A world. Even though the UK is going through one of the most turbulent times in the political arena (since 2015 it has seen 4 PMs, vote on leaving the EU, and endured Covid and energy crises which led to one of the worst inflations in its history) the country remains to be one of the top places for the inbound cross-border M&A deals. This thesis aims to analyse the UK M&A market and what makes them so attractive for foreign investments in the form of inbound M&A deals. It's clear that Brexit changed the tides in the UK market, but how it happened and how much of a change it brought, remains to be not so transparent. On top of it, there is a never-ending debate from politicians to the media, about if the foreign owners of the local companies perform better, or if local owners have the higher hand. This thesis tries to find an answer to these questions, by considering the latest developments in the UK market and analysing it as the target country for the M&A deals.