Cross-border deal corridors to boost M&A volumes nearly 10% for H1
– Globally $583bn worth of deals have been announced so far in 2015, surpassing the $563 billion announced in Q1 last year.
– Inbound acquisitions into Europe are growing at their fastest pace in a decade, six out of the top 10 deals announced in 2015 were from either North America or Asia.
M&A global deal volumes are predicted to rise by 8% for the first half of this year, to around 16,800 deals, according to Deloitte, the business advisory firm. So far, $583bn worth of deals have been announced in 2015, surpassing the $563bn announced in Q1 last year.
Iain Macmillan, head of M&A at Deloitte, commented: “For the first time since 2010, we are expecting to see four consecutive quarters of growth in deal volume. The factors driving M&A include the decline in oil prices, appreciation of the dollar and pressure from investors to focus on top-line growth.”
Inbound acquisitions into Europe are growing at the fastest pace in a decade, and six out of the top 10 deals announced in 2015 were from non-European acquirers. This reflects developments last year, when of the $797bn invested in European assets, just over a quarter were inbound deals by non-European acquirers.
Iain continued: “With many global currencies having depreciated against the dollar, assets abroad are looking more attractive for the US corporate sector. The euro depreciated by 21% against the dollar, whilst US inbound deals into Europe increased by 30%.”
Meanwhile, in 2014, Chinese companies announced a record $46.8bn of outbound M&A, more than 10 times the amount spent a decade ago.
Iain added: “Chinese companies are countering the slowdown in their economy with a remarkable international expansionary programme, using M&A. Europe received the largest share of China’s foreign M&A investment, with deal values tripling from $4.1bn in 2013 to $13.5bn in 2014.”
Iain concluded: “The sheer number of elections coming up this year in Europe, and then the preparation for the US elections could cause buyers to temporarily pause. This shouldn’t distract from the overall picture, which shows confidence returning.”
