This study investigates whether conference calls accompanying M&A announcements in Europe provide valuable information for capital market participants and hence induce an abnormal stock price revaluation on the bidder's equity. Based on handpicked data for transactions between 2008 and 2012 we focus on the five most acquisitive country markets in Europe. Overall, our results show that bidders are more likely to conduct conference calls with increasing transaction value, for transactions with public targets and non-diversifying transactions. Further, the decision for voluntary disclosure is positively influenced by increased bidder size and the comparably weaker governance systems for German and Swiss firms. After controlling for self-selection bias and other determinants of stock returns around mergers and acquisitions (M&A) announcement, evidence is in strong support that firms with merger-related conference calls yield a higher abnormal return than firms merely publishing a press release. However, significant favourable investor reaction is only present in the UK and French subsamples and in the subsamples of industries with a focus on research and development (R&D).

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -A substantial minority of bidding firms disclose synergy forecasts during mergers and acquisitions (M&A). Using these hand-collected synergy announcements, the purpose of this paper is to investigate synergy characteristics as well as explore their shareholder wealth effects within the European energy sector between 1998 and 2010. Design/methodology/approach -The authors employ the market model event study methodology to infer short-term wealth implications as well as the Fama French 3 Factor model to estimate long-term effects. Findings -The paper provides evidence for a positive correlation between the synergy size and combined bidder and target returns. However, the market discounts disclosed synergies to a degree which reveals that managers in the energy sector are likely to overestimate the actual, realizable size of the emerging synergies. Additionally, the results show that post merger long-term returns of synergy disclosing firms remain significantly positive, indicating that projected synergies are continuously realized. Originality/value -As the first study the paper shows that a synergy disclosure effect exists within the European market and hence demonstrates that synergy forecasts serve as an efficient instrument to decrease existing information asymmetries.

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1. Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) during the latest takeover wave between US-American utility firms did not lead to increased market power. 2. Nevertheless, market value of merging entities appreciated on the day of the transaction. 3. In contrast, in Germany the overall market power in the utility sector increased as a result of national mergers, particularly during horizontal transactions. 4. Thus, the diverging regulation mechanisms and market structure of Germany and the US apparently influences the effect of national M&A in the utility sector.

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