10 Acquisition International - October 2017 Q3 has been fairly quiet in terms of the volume and value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals announced worldwide, according to Zephyr, the M&A database published by Bureau van Dijk. During the three months under review there have been 19,913 deals worth a combined USD 967,534 million announced on a global scale. n terms of value, Q3’s result represents the lowest for a three-month period since the first quarter of 2016, when deals worth USD 935,126 million were announced. The last time volume plumbed such depths was in Q3 2013 (19,314 deals). Despite the less than record-breaking results, there were still a number of high value deals announced during the period under review. The largest of all was worth USD 30,000 million as United Technologies agreed to acquire US aircraft cabin displays manufacturer Rockwell Collins in early September. This deal alone accounted for three per cent of total value for the quarter. It was followed by the USD 18,800 million purchase of a 60 per cent stake in coal and gas-fuelled energy player Energy Future Holdings by Sempra Energy, which was announced in August. Third place was taken by a USD 17,132 million buyout of electricity distributor Calpine by Energy Capital Partners, Access Industries and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, among other undisclosed investors. In all, nine deals announced during Q3 were worth in excess of USD 10,000 million and featured targets in the UK, Spain, Singapore, Japan and the US. In terms of the year as a whole, 2017 is shaping up reasonably well. Since the beginning of January there have been 67,042 deals worth a combined USD 3,138,064 million. In the whole of 2016 USD 4,463,675 million was injected across 97,231 deals. 2017 looks more promising when we consider that by the same date in 2016, USD 3,068,033 million had been injected across 71,883 deals. This means that in terms of value, 2017 is slightly ahead of the result at the same point in 2016. As such, a busy final quarter could result in this year actually surpassing last year’s value result. By the 27th September 2015 dealmaking of USD 3,559,544 million had been announced. This result is not too far ahead of the USD 3,138,064 million signed off during 2017 to date and 2015 ultimately proved to be a very impressive year, with total value of USD 5,071,895 million recorded for the year as a whole. North American targets attracted more value than any other region in Q3, having been targeted in deals worth a combined USD 331,135 million. This places it ahead of the Far East and Central Asia, which featured in deals worth USD 278,635 million and was followed by Western Europe with USD 243,308 million. North America and the Far East and Central Asia switched places by volume as the latter topped the rankings with 5,984 deals while the former notched up 5,256. Western Europe was third by volume with 5,211 deals. North America’s strong positioning by value is unsurprising given that the four largest deals announced during Q3 all featured targets based in the US. To sum up, although Q3 is down on both Q1 and Q2 2017 in terms of value, the picture for 2017 to date is much brighter than it may first appear. Given that the year has so far surpassed value to the same point in 2016 Q4 will ultimately determine how things stand when January comes around. Company: Bureau van Dijk E-Mail:
[email protected] Web: www.bvdinfo.com Q3 Round-up I