M&A deals close to €9m in Q4

MORE than half of all Irish merger and acquisitions activity in 2006 took place in the final three months of the year.

New figures from finance house Ion Equity reveal that irish firms were involved in deals worth €8.6 billion in the last quarter of 2006 out of a total of 15bn for the year as a whole.

Ion said the full year figure is 22% more than was recorded in 2005, though the final three months are skewed by some major deals, including the €3.6bn takeover of Houghton Mifflin by Riverdeep.