Building Momentum: US M&A in 2016
​Provided by MergerMarket, a Partner of M&A Leadership Council 

A recent report by White & Case and Mergermarket, Building Momentum: US M&A in 2016, reveals US M&A momentum is expected to continue building strongly into 2017. Despite relatively slow deal activity in the earlier part of 2016, the US M&A market delivered another strong year following a string of bulge bracket deals in October and November. The value of US M&A was up 52% in the second half of 2016, compared with the first. And although value (US$1.5 trillion) and volume (5,084 deals announced) were both down compared with 2015, 2016 ended as the second-highest year for value since 2007.

Donald Trump’s victory in the US Presidential election caught many by surprise, and although there are elements of uncertainty around it, initial indications strongly suggest that the overall impact of the new President’s policies will strongly favor business and M&A.

Other key findings of the report include:

Canada was the most active inbound investor in the US, leading in volume and value with 155 deals worth US$110.6 billion in 2016. The UK ranked second in terms of volume, with 141 transactions, but was only fifth in the value rankings (US$28.4 billion), behind Canada, Germany (US$84.4 billion), China (US$63.6 billion) and Ireland (US$45.5 billion). However, it should be noted that German and Irish figures are skewed by megadeals involving Bayer AG/Monsanto and Shire/Baxalta respectively

TMT, once again, dominated sector-specific US M&A with 1,114 deals worth US$363 billion in 2016. This included AT&T’s US$105.1 billion bid for Time Warner, Microsoft’s US$25.5 billion acquisition of LinkedIn and CenturyLink’s US$34.5 billion purchase of Level 3 Communications

Private equity buyouts in 2016 kept pace with the previous year. There were 1,030 buyouts in 2016, up from the 969 deals recorded in 2015. Value was up marginally as well, from US$159 billion to US$159.4 billion

To download the full report go HERE.