PR firms fight for M&A work
FINANCIAL DYNAMICS muscled out other PR firms to advise on the highest number of takeovers in the first half, as deal activity recovered.
FD provided communications on 31 UK transactions worth £8.5bn, according to figures compiled by mergermarket. Among others, the company advised engineering support services firm Babcock on its £1.3bn pursuit of rival VT Group and is helping utilities outfit Spice defend against an approach from Cinven, the private equity business.
FD was followed by Brunswick, which worked on 20 deals worth £13.3bn and Maitland, which handled 23 situations worth £5.3bn.
The six months to June saw a global pickup in corporate activity, mergermarket said. Global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) totalled $881bn (£586.6bn) in the first half, up 7.8 per cent year-on-year, fuelled by a resurgence in leveraged buyouts.
It was the busiest period for cross-border transactions since the first half of 2008, with American firms seeking to take advantage of weakness in sterling and western bosses casting their eyes eastwards for growth. Ebitda multiples, which value companies based on their underlying earnings, were also at their highest level for two years.
PR Advisers to UK M&A: Volume
Deal
Ranking H1 2010 H1 2009 count
H1 2009 H1 2010 Company name Value (£m) Deal count Deal count change
1 1 FD 8,486 50 31 19
4 2 Brunswick Group 13,246 37 20 17
2 3 Maitland 5,313 28 23 5
5 4 Citigate 4,422 27 13 14
3 5 Finsbury Group 9,801 20 22 -2
8 6 Tulchan Communications4,106 15 6 9
12 7 College Hill 1,643 11 5 6
14 8 Hogarth Partnership 358 10 4 6
11 9 M:Communications 4,077 9 5 4
13 10 Pelham Bell Pottinger 655 9 4 5