M&A offers a ‘holiday’ in a challenging market: Saacke

Merger and acquisition activity is being used to camouflage the true operational performance of some listed companies.

This is according to Gunther Saacke, the chief executive officer of Qatar Re, speaking to Intelligent Insurer at MultaQa 2015.

“With regard to some quoted companies, some have completed quite substantial reserve releases, particularly last year, so some may not be performing quite as well as they have made themselves look.

“If you analyse this more closely, you understand why such entities are so now focused on merger and acquisitions.”

He believes some boards are hoping shareholders will allow them the time to complete substantial mergers or acquisitions and the time for synergies to have a positive effect on the results.

“That gives management a holiday from delivering on what remains a challenging market," he said.