18,500 M&As worth €1.28trn so far this year

Nearly 18,500 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) worth $1.7trn (€1.28trn) have been completed this year.

Figures released by Deloitte yesterday show that global M&As have been steadily rising this year despite several withdrawals changing public perception of activity.

The report is also predicting that more than 8,000 deals will be completed in the third quarter of the year, a 9% year-on-year increase and a 6% on the previous quarter.

“Several high-profile withdrawn deals have skewed public perception of the current M&A market, disguising what has been a steady uptick in global M&A deal volumes,” said Deloitte Ireland corporate finance partner David O’Flanagan.

US companies’ pursuit of European firms has accounted for much of the activity to date this year, according to Mr O’Flanagan.

“The rise in deal volumes is being driven by a boom in US deal-making, where, despite the severe weather-related setback, US companies accounted for 55% of all disclosed deals by value in the second quarter,” said Mr O’Flanagan. “Europe is a key target for US companies, year to date they have spent $89bn on European companies and are likely to spend in excess of $150bn on European deals this year.”

In Ireland, deals in the techn, media, and telecoms sectors have fallen, while those in the life sciences and healthcare industries rose accounting for the vast majority of activity.

“Life science and healthcare transactions accounted for 92% of disclosed deal values in Ireland for the first half of 2014, including five of the six largest transactions,” said Mr O’Flanagan. “The largest of these is Medtronic’s acquisition of Covidien, which is currently in progress. Another major transaction in this space was announced last month — the acquisition of Shire by AbbVie, which is also in progress.”

Last month, figures from information services firm, Experian showed that Irish-related acquisition activity hit a 20-year high in the first half of 2014.