Experian Q1 2009 Mergers & Acquisitions deal information

News release

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Stephanie Dobson
Public Relations Manager, Business Information
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Experian’s Q1 2009 Mergers & Acquisitions and Equity Capital Market deal information

Nottingham, UK, 7 April 2009 -Experian^®, the global information services company, today released its latest M&A and ECM (flotations, rights issues and placements) data covering Q1 2009 for the UK and Europe.  According to Corpfin, an Experian company specialising in the provision of corporate and financial information, deal volumes during the quarter further decreased, while total values increased.

UK
• The UK saw a 10.4% decrease in UK M&A and ECM transactions during Q1 2009 compared to Q4 2008 (from 1,073 deals to 961 deals)

£69.2billion worth of transactions were announced in the UK in Q1 2009, up 11.1% on Q4 2008
• UBS Investment Bank was the best performing financial advisor in terms of the volume and value of deals announced in the first quarter of the year (22 transactions worth £27.7billion)
• Slaughter and May advised on the greatest number of transactions (22) in Q1 2009, while the leading legal advisor by value was Linklaters with deals worth a total of £26.2bilion

Europe
• Both deal volumes and value dropped in Q1 2009 in Europe. A total of 2,256 transactions and €174.8billion in deals represented a 20.8% and 33.5% decrease respectively on the 2,847 deals and €262.7billion recorded in Q4 2008. Thirty seven percent of European deals had a UK element
• Linklaters was the most active European legal advisor in Q1 2009, having assisted on 30 announced transactions worth €49.5billion
• UBS topped the financial advisor table in terms of volume and value, having advised on 33 deals worth a total of €38.7billion

Brian Rarity, strategic consultant with Corpfin, commented: “During Q4 2008, it was not clear to what extent deal values and volumes would continue to fall. The Q1 2009 figures show a further decline in volume of 10% in relation to Q4 2008, but there was an increase in deal value. However, government rescues greatly distort the picture and until the need for intervention dies away and the situation stabilises, normal activity is unlikely to resume. We would then expect to see the evidence of restructuring activities appearing – refinancing, acquisition of weaker competitors and the tapping of investors to strengthen balance sheets. Advisers are going to be busy, even if they will be doing slightly different things to what they did twelve months ago.”

United Kingdom in DETAIL:

UK deal volumes
There was a 10.4% decline in the number of deals announced during Q1 2009 compared to Q4 2008, with deal volumes decreasing from 1,073 transactions to 961 deals. In Q1 2008, before the recession has taken its toll, nearly twice as many transactions were announced (a total of 1,760 deals).

UK deal values
The total value of transactions announced in Q1 2009 has, however, increased by 11.1% compared to Q4 2008. Q1 2008 saw transactions worth £62.4billion announced, which is 10.8% less than the Q1 2009 total of £69.2billion. The government bailouts had a great influence on this, representing £22billion worth of transactions in Q1 2009. RBS received £5billion in January 2009 and another £13billion in February this year, while Lloyds received £4billion of support in March. RBS had already received a financial injection worth £20billion in October 2008.

UK deal sizes
Large deals (£100million*)
• A total of 53 M&A and ECM deals with a consideration over £100million* were recorded in Q1 2009, a drop of just four deals compared to Q4 2008. Q1 2008 saw a total of 94 large transactions announced.
• The deal values of large transactions have, however, increased to £64.1billion, up by 13.3% in comparison to £56.6billion announced in Q4 2008 and up by 26.1% in comparison to £50.8billion recorded in Q1 2008.
• There were 12 transactions with a consideration of over £1billion each recorded in Q1, resulting in a total value of £49.6billion, an 18.4% increase on the £41.9billion brought by nine deals in Q4 2008.
• The two largest transactions in Q1 2009 were the announcement by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, that it is intending to participate in the Treasury’s Asset Protection Scheme, in conjunction with a capital raising of £13billion.  In March HSBC Holdings Plc announced a five new for 12 existing shares fully underwritten rights issue at £2.54 per share, raising approximately £12.5billion. The latter transaction is subject to shareholder approval.

Mid-cap deals (£10-£100million*
• In the mid-cap range both deal volumes and values declined in Q1 compared to Q4 2008. A total of 126 transactions worth £4.5billion represented a 13.1% and 8.4% decrease respectively in volume and value terms on the 145 deals valued at £5billion recorded in the previous quarter.
• The Q1 2009 volume and value figures were also down on the comparative figures for Q1 2008, when 304 transactions worth £10.2billion were recorded.

Small-cap deals (under £10million*)
• Small deals accounted for 195 announced transactions and a deal value of £605.8million in Q1 2009 in contrast to Q4 2008’s 270 deals worth £799million.
• Looking back to one year ago, a total of 446 small deals accounting for £1.4billion were announced in Q1 2008.

UK deal types
Acquisitions were the most common deal type in Q1 2009, accounting for 52.3% of all M&A and ECM transactions announced, but only second highest in respect of the deal value. Rights issues accounted for a total value of £46billion and 66% of the total deal value of deals announced in Q1 2009 in the UK.

UK regions
Only Northern Ireland recorded a larger number of M&A and ECM deals in Q1 2009 in comparison with the previous quarter (12 deals resulted in a 50% increase on the eight transactions recorded in Q4 2008). However, the South West and East Anglia too, performed reasonably well with deal volumes decreasing by just 6.9% and 7.8% respectively.

The regional deal values figures provide a completely different picture, with four regions seeing an increase in total deal values compared to Q4 2008: Greater London (up by 47.6%), South West (up by 94.3%), East Anglia (up by 265.9%), and Scotland (up 20.6%).


UK financial and legal advisors
Corpfin’s insight into advisors’ deal activity has enabled it to identify the most active financial and legal advisors in Q1 2009.

Table 1: Financial advisor deal activities by volume Q1 2009

Table 2: Legal advisor deal activities by volume Q1 2009

Table 3: Financial advisor deal activities by value Q1 2009

Table 4: Legal advisor deal activities by value Q1 2009

ENDS