EMEA is the strongest performing region for global early-stage mergers and acquisitions (M&A), with the UK outperforming the region and shrugging off concerns over the results of the anticipated EU membership referendum, and a potential “Brexit”.
That’s according to the latest Intralinks Deal Flow Predictor (DFP), which also finds that early-stage M&A activity and deal pipelines are increasing in the Consumer, Real Estate and Retail sectors while Materials, High Technology and Energy & Power early-stage deal activity is weakening.
The Intralinks DFP forecasts the volume of future M&A deal announcements by tracking the number of early-stage M&A deals that are in preparation or have reached the due diligence stage. On average, these deals are six months away from their public announcement. The Intralinks DFP has been independently verified as an accurate predictor of future changes in the global number of announced M&A transactions.
According to the latest Intralinks DFP, global early-stage M&A activity increased by 8.1 per cent year-on-year, with Europe, the Middle East & Africa (EMEA) increasing by 11 per cent.
Dealmakers targeting the UK remain bullish as shown by the 14.9 per cent growth in early-stage M&A activity.
“Despite potential concerns over a “Brexit” decision in the anticipated UK EU membership referendum, European dealmakers still appear willing to start deals, which should translate into a higher level of M&A announcements in the first half of this year, compared to the same period last year,” says Philip Whitchelo, Intralinks’ vice president of strategy and product marketing. “Concerns over a slowing global economy and market volatility mean that the rate of growth in M&A in 2016 looks likely to be lower than in 2015, but it does not indicate that the M&A boom we have witnessed over the past two years is coming to an end in the next six months.”
