“In terms of value February has been a disappointing month for North America as a lack of high-value deals held results down, as just one transaction was worth over USD 10,000 million during the month."
New York, New York (PRWEB) March 02, 2016
There were 1,771 mergers and acquisitions (M&A) worth a combined USD 93,609 million targeting North American companies announced in February, according to information collected by the leading M&A database Zephyr. Value declined 10 per cent from USD 104,489 million in January, and 37 per cent year-on-year (February 2015: USD 149,677 million). Volume decreased 18 per cent month-on-month from 2,150 deals, compared to a 20 per cent decline on the same time last year (2,211 deals).
Zephyr shows that February’s highest valued transaction was the institutional buyout of US-based residential and small business electronic security and fire protection provider ADT Corporation for USD 11,943 million. This deal represents 13 per cent of total M&A value in February (USD 93,609 million). The second largest deal involved Abbott Laboratories acquiring Alere for USD 8,400 million.
Companies operating the primary sector (agriculture, mining etc) were popular targets of M&A in February as value was almost six times higher month-on-month as USD 13,166 million-worth of deals were signed off over the four weeks under review (January 2016: USD 2,279 million). A number of sectors significantly increased by value in February including wholesale and retail trade (February 2016: USD 9,020 million; January 2016: USD 2,021 million), gas, water and electricity (February 2016: USD 7,995 million; January 2016: USD 1,132 million) and metals and metal products (February 2016: USD 2,742 million; January 2016: USD 293 million). Other sectors such as education and health, post and telecommunications and insurance companies also performed well during the month.
Lisa Wright, Zephyr director, commented, “In terms of value February has been a disappointing month for North America as a lack of high-value deals held results down, as just one transaction was worth over USD 10,000 million during the month. However, private equity activity in the region remains strong, with the end of Q1 and the end of the fiscal year approaching for many companies, deal activity in March typically bounces back and hopefully this will be the case again in 2016.”
Meanwhile, the Zephyr database shows that the value of private equity and venture capital (PE and VC) investment targeting North American companies almost doubled in the month review. There were 1,109 deals worth a combined USD 27,588 million in February, compared to 1,343 deals worth USD 15,721 million in January.
Lisa Wright, Zephyr director
For further information, please contact:
Zephyr Editorial
- Tel: +44 (0)161 838 9554
- Email us
- Get the full report
- Access the raw data used in the report
- Download a high-res photograph of Lisa Wright, director of Zephyr
Notes to Editors:
About the data
1. Activity is based on the activity of the target country
2. The date range for February 2016 is deals announced between 01/02/2016 – 28/02/2016 inclusive
3. The sector breakdown uses targets’ activities as defined to be ‘Major Sectors’ by Zephyr
About Zephyr
Zephyr is an information solution containing M&A, IPO and venture capital deals and rumours with links to detailed financial company information. Winner of numerous recent M&A industry awards, including Best M&A Data Publisher 2015 at the Acquisition International M&A Awards, Zephyr is published by Bureau van Dijk (BvD). The deals on Zephyr are linked to the company financials and peer reports on BvD's product range. Zephyr contains information on close to 1.4 million deals.
More information on Zephyr
About Bureau van Dijk
Bureau van Dijk (BvD) is the leading provider of private company, corporate ownership and deal information. BvD’s product range combines data from regulatory and other sources, including 140 information partners, with flexible software to allow users to manipulate data for a range of research needs and applications. Its Orbis database provides information on 180 million companies across the globe.
In addition, BvD addresses specific business challenges through its range of Catalysts including transfer pricing, credit, procurement, KYC, client on-boarding, M&A research and valuations, while BvD custom delivers bespoke solutions. http://www.bvdinfo.com/corporatefinance
