Some Interesting M&A Data
Contributed by Mergermarket, a Partner of M&A Leadership Council

Mergermarket has released its Global M&A roundup for the first half (H1) of 2016, including its league tables for financial advisors. Take a look at the report HERE!

A few key findings include:

• An uncertain environment in 2016 caused by the UK’s referendum on European Union (EU) membership and US elections are political upheavals that have negatively impacted M&A activity, setting global M&A back 26.6% during H1 2016 with deals worth US$ 1.32tn compared to US$ 1.81tn in H1 2015, and down 66.8% versus US$ 3.98tn in H2 2015
   
• The build-up and announcement of Brexit sent shockwaves through the dealmaking community. The UK’s second quarter featured the country's referendum and resulted in its Q2 value (US$ 19.3bn) crashing 50.5% from Q1 2016 (US$ 38.9bn). Firms postponed deals, cautious of the impact exchange rates and questioning what they will actually be buying into, unaware of how future negotiations will affect them. Foreign acquirers are delaying transactions, with the value of inbound deals plummeting more than half (-60.1%) from Q1 2016 (US$ 32.8bn) into Q2 2016 (US$ 13.1bn). Private equity firms are holding back from casting any confidence in the long-term UK environment - buyouts of UK companies amounted to only US$ 4.9bn, three quarters less (75.4%) than H1 2015
   
• US dealmaking rounded out the first half of 2016 with a rebalancing act following 2015's record-breaking values. M&A activity totaled US$ 562.7bn across 2,242 transactions, a 31.5% drop in value and decrease in volume by 342 transactions from H1 2015 (US$ 822bn, 2,582 deals). At the same time, overall value remained 6.1% above Mergermarket’s historic average H1 total deal value (US$ 530.2bn)