Irish acquistions leap in 2004, says survey

Irish companies were involved in more than €3bn worth of acquisitions in the first half of 2004, and Ireland is increasingly becoming a net acquirer of assets at home and abroad, new figures have revealed.

The latest M&A Tracker survey by corporate finance firm Ion Equity for the first half of the year are an "indication of the increasing wealth and clout of Irish buyers", according to Ion Equity chief executive Neil O’Leary.

"As the economy continues to grow and Irish businesses grow, this pattern of net acquisitions is likely to continue,” said Ion Equity Chief Executive Neil O’Leary.

The M&A Tracker survey shows that in the first half of 2004, Irish companies were involved in more than €3bn worth of acquisitions, almost three times the value of acquisitions in the first half of 2003.

The biggest single deal in the period was Quinlan Private’s €1bn acquisition of the Savoy Hotel Group in the UK.

CRH (19 acquisitions worth in the region of €700m) and Kerry Group (eight acquisitions worth in the region of €600m) continued their active programmes of overseas acquisitions, with Tullow Oil’s €470m acquisition of African assets being the other major contributor to the increase in the figures.

In terms of the number of deals, the most active sectors were food, industrial, support services, IT/telecoms and leisure/travel – the latter mostly involving the sale or acquisition of hotels.

As with the bigger deals, most of the buyers were Irish, and in the case of smaller deals the main driver is either consolidation in the Irish market or the opportunistic acquisition of overseas assets, mainly in the UK.

"On the basis that general global economic conditions for deal-making may wobble but will not worsen significantly, further acquisitions from Irish dealmakers at home and abroad are likely, especially in the UK," added Mr O'Leary.