Summary Overview
- UK M&A activity totalled £80.6bn in 2012, up 5.1% compared to 2011 (£76.7bn) and accounted for 18.6% of total European M&A activity of£433.3bn.
- Q4 2012 amounted to £20bn, up 36.1% from the same period last year(£14.7bn) and up 23.5% compared to Q3 2012 (£16.2bn).
- The top sector continued to be Energy, Mining & Utilities (£20.6bn) with a 25.6% market share of total UK deal value. The sector’s largest deal with UK target was the £6.8bn acquisition of 30.2% stake in GDF Suez Energy International by GDF Suez in April.
- Foreign investments into the country accounted for 70.8% of all UK M&A in 2012. Totalling £57.1bn, this represented a 0.9% increase from 2011 (£56.6bn) and the highest annual value since 2008 (£74.8bn)
- UK cross-border outbound activity in 2012 amounted to £43.1bn, down 32.9% from the last year’s £64.2bn, recording its lowest value since2009 (£19.5bn). However, Q4 2012 (£14.3bn) was up for a third consecutive quarter in 2012, increasing by 7.5% from £13.3bn in Q32012 and up 120% from £6.5bn in Q1 2012.
- Having advised on £69.4bn-worth of deals including the top four UK deals, Barclays jumped five positions to take the lead in the financial advisor league table by deal value.
- Linklaters topped the legal advisor table by deal value after advising on95 deals worth £66.1bn – this deal value includes the 50% acquisition ofTNK-BP made by Rosneft Oil Company for £19.5bn.
Click here for full details.