Patterns of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) of cross-border contractors from selected countries

While studies of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) have been conducted in many industries, international construction has been largely neglected. A study was conducted to look at mergers and acquisitions (M&As) by selected contractors listed in the Engineering News Records Top 225 International Contractors between 1999-2003 inclusively from selected countries. Data were compiled entirely from online secondary sources. Analysis was conducted to identify possible patterns, and to explain those patterns by referring to reliable sources. Among the findings were that M&As were dominated by a few companies, same-industry M&As were more frequent than cross-industry M&As, and same-size M&As were slightly more frequent than different-size M&As. M&As were used more to penetrate third markets than to increase corporate size. For the former motive, cross-border M&As were more frequent, for the latter, it was domestic M&As. Overall though, more of the studied companies were involved in domestic rather than cross-border M&As.