ONS: Mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies
- In Quarter 4 (Oct to Dec) 2019, cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving a change in majority share ownership saw notable decreases in both value and number, while domestic M&A recorded an increase in the value but a fall in the number of deals.
- During January to December 2019, the estimates for the values of inward and domestic M&A saw notable decreases from 2018; outward M&A also fell.
- Domestic M&A (UK companies acquiring other UK companies) was valued at £2.4bn in Quarter 4 2019, higher than the previous quarter (£1.6bn); the total value for domestic M&A for the whole of 2019 was £8.7bn, notably lower than the value in 2018 (£27.7bn).
- In Quarter 4 2019, estimates for the total value of inward M&A (foreign companies abroad acquiring UK companies) was £13.4bn, slightly lower than Quarter 3 (Jul to Sept) 2019 (£14bn); the value of inward M&A for 2019 was £53.8bn, a sizeable decrease of £25bn compared with 2018 (£78.8bn).
- The value of outward M&A (UK companies acquiring foreign companies abroad) was £3.5bn in Quarter 4 2019, a decrease of £4.2bn on the value recorded in the previous quarter (£7.7bn); in 2019, outward M&A was worth a total of £20.9bn, much lower than 2017 (£77.5bn) and £2.9bn lower than the value in 2018 (£23.8bn).
