Post merger strategies among commercial banks in Kenya

Abstract

In today’s globalized economy, mergers and acquisitions are being increasingly used world over for improving competitiveness of companies through gaining greater market share, broadening the portfolio to reduce business risk, for entering new markets and geographies, and capitalizing on economies of scale. This study sought to establish post merger strategies commercial banks have used in Kenya. To achieve this, the study was guided by two objectives: identifying post merger strategies used by commercial banks in Kenya and determine the effectiveness of post merger strategies adopted in commercial banks in Kenya. This study adopted a cross sectional survey design since it focused on 5 mergers and acquisitions that have been witnessed in Kenya since 1995. The study targeted the office of corporate communications managers because they are normally involved in new strategy development and implementation. Primary data was collected using a questionnaire. The questionnaire included open and closed ended questions for ease of administration. Collected data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study concludes that the post merger strategies used by the commercial banks in Kenya include; employee training and development, system automation, product development, customer help lines, rebranding, advertising, innovation and system upgrade. The study concludes that implementation of post merger strategies is faced with barriers. The study further concludes that communication and regulations barriers affect the implementation process to great extent. This study recommends that intensive training programs should be adopted after the mergers so as to enhance employees’ development as well as performance. The study recommends that the top management should come up with intensive consulting mechanism so as to intensively discuss the incompatible ideas and human factors which hinder the success of the merges. The study recommends that systematic and thorough attention should be paid to potential problems of post merger integration so as to facilitate finding of a solution.