The Influence of Accounting and Auditing Regulations on Decisions Regarding External Growth Strategies in Romanian Industry

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the chances that a certain type of investor will purchase a stake in an industry target company, considering the accounting practices and / or the audit opinion, to which certain financial information is added, related to size and profitability. The influence of these factors on the acquisition decision, reflected in the deal value, is also analyzed. Methodology – For testing and validation of working hypotheses, multinomial logistic regression, generalized linear models and multiple correspondences analysis are used, considering a sample of 631 acquisitions from the Bucharest Stock Exchange (BSE). Results – The undisclosed investors (in most cases, individuals) are interested in the size of the company, while companies consider the quality of the information provided by the target company, which applies IFRS and has the financial statements accompanied by the opinion of an auditor. Profitability is a significant factor for unlisted investors. As for the price that these investors decide to pay in the transaction, it is positively influenced by all the factors mentioned above. Originality – The study provides an overview of the types of investors who acquire stakes on the BSE and of the factors that influence the chances that they will pay a certain price for equity stakes.