Mergers and acquisitions fall by nearly half in first half of the year

There was a significant decline in Irish-related merger, acquisition and equity investment activity during the first half of this year, with transactions nearly halving on the same period last year, new data shows.

The figures — from global information services giant, Experian — show 90 transactions involving Irish firms were completed between the beginning of January and the end of June; a year- on-year volume drop of just under 45%. The first half of 2012 saw 163 transactions.

In value terms, €13.2bn worth of transactions marked a 39.2% year-on- year drop.