Cross-Border Mergers and Acquisitions from India: Motives and Integration Strategies of Indian Acquirers

Abstract

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) from emerging markets such as India have increased during the past decade, even during the years following the credit crunch when companies from Western countries were investing less. Our understanding of Indian M&As is limited, but prior literature argues that M&As by firms from emerging economies (EE) differ from deals made by Western firms.Not only does the starting point of the former's deals deviate from the mainstream, but their reliance on M&As as their primary internationalization strategy challenges traditional internationalization theories. In this chapter, we focus on Indian M&As, and the drivers and strategies related to Indian M&As. Our study draws from three illustrative cases of Indian acquisitions in three European countries (Finland, Sweden, and the UK) and three different industries (IT, textile industry, and pharmaceutical industry). Our main findings give support to an asymmetry-based viewpoint for explaining Indian M&As to developed markets and imply that Indian M&As adopt a preservation strategy in the post-M&A phase for very strategic reasons, which might also explain why Indian M&As are so successful and why they manage to create value despite limited integration.