ABSTRACT

This research study evaluates the impact of merger and acquisition on the performance of companies in Nigeria with much emphasis being placed on two selected banks, "United Bank for Africa and Access Bank Plc ". A survey research design was used as data used were obtained from secondary sources, using the selected banks annual reports and statements of accounts prior to (2001-2006) and after (2010-2015) merger and acquisition. Three research questions were formulated of which three hypotheses were tested using t-test statistic at 5% level of significance (or 95% confidence level) with the aid of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) 21 which is an improvement on the ordinary student t-test. The result showed an enhanced companies performance leading to improved financial efficiency resulting from increase in their combined means, standard deviations and variances for net assets, profit after tax and gross earnings. The evidence from the analysed hypotheses indicated that merger and acquisition has significant positive impact on the profitability, company 's assets and not for company 's growth. These results could be attributed to the fact that most companies spend huge sums of money after the merger and acquisition to expand branches and for investment. The researcher therefore, recommends that companies should put in place strategies that would improve their performance, stability and growth, and also companies should be more aggressive in financial efficiency for an improved financial position in terms of profit after tax, net assets and gross earnings in order to reap more the benefits of post mergers and acquisitions bids.