News release

Contact:
Serj Heera
PR Manager, Business Information and Automotive
+44 (0) 115 992 2773 Tel
serjeet.heera@uk.experian.com Email

number of mergers and acquisitions fall in Q1

But overall value increase, as Experian releases it s latest data

Nottingham, 01 April 2010 — Experian^®, the global information services company, today released its latest mergers and acquisitions and equity capital market (ECM - flotation, rights issue and placement) data covering quarter Q1 2010.

The data reveals that while the number of transactions fell during Q1, the total value of them increased.  By comparison, the total number and value of deals decreased in Europe as a whole.

UK highlights

·         The UK saw an 18.1% decrease in the number UK M&A and ECM transactions announced during Q1 2010 compared to Q4 2009 (from 1,131 deals to 926 deals).

·         £68.9billion worth of transactions was announced in the UK in Q1 2010 - up by 4.5% on Q4 2009.

·         Rothschild was the best performing financial advisor by volume with 18 deals and Credit Suisse worked on the highest value of deals worth a total of £38.4billion.

·         DLA Piper advised on the highest number of transactions (21) in Q1 2010, while the leading legal advisor by value was Slaughter and May with deals worth a total of £37.1billion.

In comparison to Europe

·         Europe saw an 18.7% decrease in European M&A and ECM transactions announced                                       during Q1 2010, with only 2,353 deals compared to 2,896 transactions in Q4 2009.

·         €188.7billion worth of transactions was announced in Europe in Q1 2010 - down 20.9% on the €238.4billion recorded in Q4 2009.

Wendy Smith, Business Development Manager at Experian Corpfin, said: “At the start of 2010, feedback from the corporate finance community was more optimistic and talked of a more realistic approach to valuations amongst vendors.

“However, the lower number of deals tells us that the market is still very fragile.  Although funding has been available where strong risk free businesses have been involved, there is a still a funding gap and this is proving to be the main obstacle to getting the deals off the ground.”

UK deal sizes

Large deals (£100million* +)

·         A total of 68 M&A and ECM deals with a consideration over £100million* were recorded in Q1 2010, a decrease compared to the Q4 2009 figure of 87 large deals announced. However, when compared to Q1 2009 when 57 large transactions were announced, it represents an increase of 19.3%.

·         The deal values of large transactions have increased to £63.7billion, up by 11.6% in comparison to £57.1billion announced in Q4 2009 and down by 18.6% in comparison to £78.3billion recorded in Q1 2009.

·         The largest transaction in Q1 2010, was the announcement by Prudential Plc that it has agreed to acquire AIA Group Ltd, Hong Kong, the Asian subsidiary of American International Group Inc for £23.7billion.

Mid-cap deals (£10-£100million*)

·         In the mid-cap range both deal volumes and values decreased in Q1 2010 compared to Q4 2009. A total of 135 transactions worth £4.4billion represented a 40.5% and 43.4% decrease respectively in volume and value terms on the 227 deals valued at £7.8billion recorded in the previous quarter.

·         Volume and value figures were also down year-on-year.  In Q1 2009, 145 transactions worth £5.6billion were recorded.

·         One of the largest deals within the segment was the acquisition by Redditch-based Halfords Group Plc of Nationwide Autocentres Holdings Ltd in Solihull for £73.2million.

Small-cap deals (under £10million*)

·         Small deals accounted for 229 announced transactions and a deal value of £669.6million in Q1 2010, in contrast to 313 deals worth £945.7million in Q4 2009.

·         In comparison, during Q1 2009 a total of 244 small deals accounting for £745.4million were announced.

·         One of the most notable deals was the £9.9million acquisition of Veterinary Enterprises & Trading Ltd by Norfolk-based CVS Group Plc.

 Table 1: Comparison of regional deal activity

*refers to Republic of Ireland completed deals only

Table 2: Financial advisor deal activities Q1 2010

Table 3: Legal advisor deal activities Q1 2010