Business deal activity continues upward

MERGER and acquisition activity in the third quarter maintained its upward momentum but the value of completed deals fell by 82% year-on-year to €1.5bn, it emerged yesterday.

Ion Equity's quarterly M&A Tracker Survey shows the number of deals rose from 41 to 56.

Ion director Joe Devine said the decline in value terms could be attributed to the absence of any deals of the scale of those witnessed last summer when three transactions Green Property, Jefferson Smurfit and Allfirst all broke the €1bn barrier.