Why it has been a mega quarter for mega deals June 21, 2016 The second quarter of 2016 has been a mega period for mega deals. The three-month period has so far included 10 $10bn-plus (£6.8bn-plus) deals completing, according to Willis Towers Watson’s Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor. There were half as many mega mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions completed in the same quarter in 2015. Each of the [...]
Why there could be a burst of private equity activity after the referendum June 20, 2016 Private equity firms could be gearing up for a post-referendum surge of activity, new research suggests. Transaction volumes in private equity are believed to have dipped this year ahead of the Brexit vote. But new figures from primary research partner Third Bridge, which conducts market analysis for private equity firms, suggest interest in activity remains strong. [...]
The UK’s share of the global M&A market is at a record low ahead of EU vote June 20, 2016 The UK's share of the global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market is at a record low ahead of the EU referendum. Deals targeting UK companies have been valued at $57.6bn (£39.4bn) by Thomson Reuters, four per cent of overall worldwide M&A. This is the lowest percentage since 1980, when Thomson Reuters’ records began. It is [...]
Buy-out firms vie for Reuters clinical assets June 19, 2016 Private equity firms BC Partners, Carlyle, and Bain Capital have been shortlisted as bidders for part of Thomson Reuters’ media empire. Thomson’s intellectual property and sciences units, valued in the region of £2bn, were put up for sale after it was decided they were no longer core to the company. Thomson is expected to use [...]
BASF buys Albemarle’s surface treatment unit in $3.2bn (£2.2bn) cash deal June 17, 2016 German chemical producer BASF is buying Albemarle's surface treatment business Chemetall for $3.2bn (£2.24bn) in cash. Frankfurt-based Chemetall is a global supplier of specialty chemicals used to treat the surfaces of metals and plastics, and a large part of its business is in making chemicals to protect sheet metal for cars against corrosion. The acquisition sees [...]
Revlon set to buy Elizabeth Arden in $870m deal June 16, 2016 Cosmetics maker Revlon is set to snap up perfume maker Elizabeth Arden for a whopping $870m (£610m). Elizabeth Arden shares jumped nearly 49 per cent to $13.85 in extended trading on Thursday after the news of the deal broke while Revlon shares rose slightly to $31.30. The deal has an equity value of $419m, based on Elizabeth Arden's total outstanding [...]
Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn: Tech businesses must not get carried away June 16, 2016 Dealmakers everywhere will be hoping that tech companies don’t get carried away by news this week that Microsoft has acquired LinkedIn for a considerable sum of money. On the face of it, Microsoft’s decision to pay $26.2bn (£18.5bn) for the social media company could seem excessive but the company will have completed detailed cost modelling exercises [...]
Tech titans rule 2016 with $268bn of M&A activity June 15, 2016 Technology is leading the global mergers and acquisitions sector this year with $267.6bn worth of deals announced so far, according to new research by financial markets platform Dealogic. This is only the second time on record that technology deals accounted for the maximum number of M&A deals made in a year. The year 2000 saw [...]
M&A activity into the UK fell by 42 per cent at the start of the year, but was up over 100 per cent for the rest of Europe June 13, 2016 The first quarter of 2016 was pretty bad for inbound UK merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. Deal values decreased by 42 per cent from $51.4bn (£36.1bn) in the first three months of 2015 to $30bn in the same period this year, according to analysis from Deloitte. During the same period in the rest of Europe, M&A investment increased from $35.6bn [...]
Schneider rekindles take-over talks with Aveva after share price rebound June 13, 2016 French industrial group Schneider Electric has rekindled talks to acquire a majority stake in Cambridge-based engineering software developer Aveva. It's thought the deal could be agreed by the end of the month. It's Schneider's second attempt to strike a deal after talks between the two companies collapsed back in December last year. At the time Schneider said a merger would create "significant" challenges "that [...]