Abstract: In recent years, the number and scale of merger and acquisition transactions in China′s capital market have been increasing. Performance commitment, as an innovative form of merger and acquisition, has been constantly adopted by both sides of merger and acquisition. At the same time, merger and acquisition performance commitment default events occur frequently. This paper examines the impact of payment methods on performance commitment reliability of the target enterprise in merger and acquisition by taking merger transactions events in 2008-2014 initiated by listed companies as samples. Research shows that the equity payment is positively related to the performance commitments reliability. The paper also explores the mechanism by which the payment methods affects performance commitment reliability: the equity payment method can introduce the original institutional investors of the target enterprise to listed companies, while the increase in the share proportion of institutional investors can enhance the level of corporate governance, stabilize the target enterprise management level after the merger and acquisition, and ensure reliable performance commitment of the target enterprise. From the perspective of target enterprise, using the performance commitment reliability of target enterprise to reflect the performance of mergers and acquisitions can enrich the relevant theory research, and the conclusion of the study can not only provide theoretical reference for investment decision, but also provide reference for strengthening securities market supervision and regulating mergers and acquisitions in Chinese capital market.

Key words: payment methods, performance commitment, reliability, institutional investors