Corporate deals worth $2 trillion agreed in 2013
MERGER and acquisition (M&A) activity is back, according to data released yesterday which shows a 13 per cent increase in deals worldwide during the first nine months of 2013.
M&A activity reached $2.02 trillion (£1.26 trillion) during the period, with an incredible 18 corporate deals valued above $10bn, accounting for 22 per cent (£280bn) of the total volume of deals made.
Dealogic, which compiled the data, said it was the highest share since the first nine months of 2008.
The telecoms sector dominated the volume of deals globally, with $318.7bn worth of M&A, more than three times the sector’s total in 2012.
Verizon’s $130bn purchase of Vodafone’s stake in Verizon Wireless was the largest deal during the period, and one of the three largest corporate deals ever.
While the volume of deals was up 13 per cent from 2012, the number of deals completed actually declined 20 per cent during the period to 26,194 deals, according to Dealogic.
The largest UK acquisition during the period was Liberty Global’s purchase of Virgin Media for £15bn.
Cross border M&A totalled $564.2bn, the lowest volume for this period since 2009, Dealogic said.
Goldman Sachs led the rankings for the number of deals it advised on, with the investment bank working on 257 deals with a combined value of $597.4bn, followed by JP Morgan with 185 deals ($559.5bn) and Morgan Stanley with 199 deals ($455.8bn).
Looking ahead Dealogic said: “The third quarter 2013 followed the same trend with volume up 32 per cent to $743.9bn compared with the third quarter 2012, while activity declined 25 per cent to 7,776 deals.”