European Banking: How Leading Acquirers Are Riding the M&A Growth Wave

European Banking: How Leading Acquirers Are Riding the M&A Growth Wave

With average merger and acquisitions (M&A) deal sizes on the rise, European banks are catching a new growth wave. However, a recent report from Accenture and the Economist Intelligence Unit indicates that most senior banking executives question their ability to achieve satisfactory cost and revenue synergies through a merger or acquisition. To reach these goals—and consequently increase shareholder return—banks must upgrade their M&A capabilities. But what are those capabilities and how do companies strengthen them? In this Strategy Point of View, Accenture looks at some of the ways "leading acquirers" in European banking achieve high performance in M&A—in other words, how they make M&A an effective tool for consistently outpacing their competitors and achieving a higher total return for their shareholders.

Large mergers, as a business strategy, are more often than not, utterly useless. they are classic examples of pride and ego in action. But that comment needs to be qualified, if you leave firms alone and not tie them up in knots of nationalistic or strange economics red tape, they tend to attain the right size. In many cases, even in Europe, where national boundaries have ended up meaning that an average stock transaction in europe is 10-20 times more expensive than usa, financial institution mergers have not been successful. Not surprisingly, it is mainly due to the fact that the managers who are driving this are doing this more because of their cojones rather than their brains. And you know how that translates into action. So while a very few are good, most are, well, frankly dross. But a good article on how to make M&A work!.