The Q2 2011 IntraLinks Deal Flow Indicator (DFI), which provides an early view of aggregate deal flow activity and trends in the global market, shows a 24 per cent increase in global M&A deal activity compared to Q2 2010.
Although activity was up across all regions, including North America, Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific (APAC), the strongest growth was driven by merger and acquisition movement in Latin America. IntraLinks’ Deal Flow Indicator results are based on the company’s involvement in a significant percentage of M&A deals in the early stages of each transaction, providing a leading perspective on global deal activity.


M&A deal activity in North America increased by 15 per cent in Q2 2011 compared to Q2 2010. The other regions also experienced significant year-over-year increases in deal activity – Latin America (88 per cent), APAC (29 per cent) and EMEA (25 per cent).


“In our current economic climate, the positive trends in global deal activity this quarter are impacted not only by the opportunities created by market volatility, but also by the factors that brought the market out of the previous financial crisis,” says Matt Porzio, vice president, M&A product marketing, IntraLinks. “Growth in the past two years has been driven by favourable interest rates and cash-flush corporates and private equity firms that are seeking deals. Coupled with that, the uncertain future of sovereign debt globally and unstable markets may also have resulted in many companies accelerating deals during Q2 to avoid selling in a potentially less favourable climate.” 


Other key findings from the IntraLinks Deal Flow Indicator include an increase across all regions when comparing Q1 2011 to Q2 2011, with Latin American M&A deal activity rising by 43 per cent, more than Asia Pacific (18 per cent) and North America (16 per cent) combined. EMEA also had strong sequential growth of 26 per cent.


IntraLinks has been a leading global provider of M&A virtual data rooms for more than 10 years, providing a cloud-based platform that accelerates deals from the beginning to the end of the process. The IntraLinks Deal Flow Indicator is calculated using the total volume of IntraLinks exchanges that were proposed for use by deal teams initiating projects during the previous quarter. The totals are then analysed by global regions and compared to previous time periods. This report is based on observations and subjective interpretations of M&A deal activity and is not intended to be an indicator of IntraLinks’ business performance or operating results for any prior or future period.
