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M&A at a Glance (January 2015)
January 15, 2015 download PDF
The holiday season saw a slow-down in the M&A market.
Global volume, as measured by total dollar value, decreased in
December 2014 from the previous month to $287.37 billion (a 20.3%
decrease). U.S. volume decreased 43.2% to $92.48
billion. There was also a 13.4% decrease in the number of
transactions in the U.S (683), which ties with a yearly low set in
February 2014. The average volume of deals in the U.S. fell
to $345.1 million in December 2014 with most of the decline
stemming from fewer and relatively smaller U.S. strategic
transactions. Figure 1.
Real Estate & Property was the most active U.S. target
industry by volume in December 2014 ($16.44 billion), closely
followed by Healthcare ($15.96 billion) and Computers &
Electronics ($15.87 billion). Healthcare finished the year as
the most active industry ($305.36 billion) by a wide margin, while
Computers & Electronics totaled the most number of deals over
the last 12 months. Figure 2. With respect to inbound
U.S. crossborder transactions, Singapore took the top position by
deal volume in December 2014 ($9.58 billion) driven by Blackstone
Group LP's agreement to sell IndCor Properties for $8.1 billion to
Global Logistic Properties Ltd and GIC Pte Ltd., while Canada
maintained its top spot by number of deals (which it has dominated
for the last 12 months). The United Kingdom had a
strong December for outbound U.S. crossborder transactions
with $6.00 billion in volume. Figure 3.
Off the heels of November 2014's record-setting offer for
Allergan, Inc. ($67.37 billion), the market in December 2014 for
mega-deals was relatively tepid, with the largest U.S. public
merger of the month being the $8.25 billion offer for PetSmart,
Inc. by Henry Crown & Co., The Caisse de depot et placement du
Quebec, StepStone Group Holdings LLC and BC Partners Ltd.
Figure 5. The absence of mega-deals was consistent with the
overall decline of strategic transactions globally and in the U.S.
(as measured by dollar value), with the dollar value of global
strategic transactions down 27.9% and U.S. strategic transactions
down 65.1%. Figure 1.
Average reverse break fees decreased to 4.4% in December 2014,
compared to 4.8% over the last 12 months. Figure 7. The
incidence of tender offers in December 2014 increased to 31.3%,
approximately 10% higher than the 12-month average. Figure
11. Finally, we note that approximately 5.9% of offers in
December 2014 were hostile/unsolicited as compared to 15.9% over
the last 12 months. Figure 12.