Global M&A for the year to date totalled USD2,178.4bn, up 2.5% from the same period in 2010 (USD2,125.9bn), making it the busiest year since 2008 (which saw USD2,405.8bn), according to figures released by MergerMarket. A total of 12,455 deals were announced in 2011, 1.3% below the number for 2010 (12,296 deals).
Activity did, however, decrease over four successive quarters, with USD432bn-worth of deals announced globally in the fourth quarter of 2011, down 22.5% from Q3 2011 (USD557.5bn). Fourth quarter activity was 39% lower than in Q4 2010 (USD 708.1bn), with the lowest quarterly total since Q3 2009 (USD325.4bn). The largest deal of the year was Kinder Morgan’s USD37.4bn offer to acquire US-based El Paso, announced in October, in the largest corporate deal since ExxonMobil’s USD40.6bn acquisition of XTO Energy in December 2009.
2011 was the busiest year for cross-border M&A since 2008, in spite of a gradual slowdown in M&A activity after the first half of the year. Cross-border deals (by individual countries) announced in 2011 added up to USD 874.4bn and regional cross-border deals were up to USD593bn, an increase of 9.8% and 19.6% respectively since 2010, which saw USD796.7bn-worth by country and USD 495.7bn-worth by region. The year saw cross-border deals between individual countries accounting for 41.5% of global M&A activity, the second highest proportion since 2007 when USD1,564.4bn-worth accounted for 42.8%.
The Energy, Mining & Utilities sector was the sector with the highest total value of M&A deals in 2011, with deals totalling USD557.1bn, up 3.6% from 2010 (USD537.7bn) and accounting for 25.6% of global M&A deals in 2011
Goldman Sachs topped the global M&A financial advisory tables by total deal value last year, having displaced JPMorgan which led after the first quarter. Goldman Sachs, which was behind Morgan Stanley in the rankings in 2010, now leads (with Morgan Stanley in second) by more than USD141.7bn. Goldman worked on five of the ten largest deals announced in 2011.
The top ten firms in the global M&A financial advisory tables saw an average increase of 3.5% in the total value of deals worked on last year as compared with 2010. Credit Suisse, ranked fourth, was the top ranking non-US firm in the advisory tables, and there were nine other non-US firms in the top 20 rankings.
