Impact of foreign investors on the Norwegian market

Abstract

This paper seeks to answer the impact of foreign acquisitions on listed companies in the Norwegian market. Over the period of 2003-2018 we found 44 Norwegian listed companies with our specific limitations which had been exposed for crossborder acquisition. Looking at trends and firm performance for two samples, acquired and non-acquired firms, we try to investigate the effects a foreign investor has on the Norwegian market. We use the performance measures ROE and ROA, and the characteristic measures size and leverage. We find evidence that firms with weak size are more likely to be acquired by foreign investors. We do not find evidence that firm performance change after acquisition. Due to lack of statistical significance in firm performance we cannot conclude on the impact foreign investors have on the Norwegian market, but we see trends towards similar research articles.