Experian reveals UK M&A and equity capital activity for April - June 2009

News release

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Serj Heera
PR Manager, Business Information & Automotive
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Experian reveals UK M&A and equity capital activity for April - June 2009
Value and volume of corporate deals in Q2 2009 around half that of Q2 2008
Activity in Greater London “gives rise to some cautious optimism”

Nottingham, UK, 3 July 2009 – Experian^®, the global information services company, today published new data highlighting the extent of merger and acquisition and equity capital market (ECM - flotation, rights issue and placement) activities in the UK for the period 1 April to 30 June (Q2) 2009.

UK

According to figures from Corpfin, an Experian company specialising in the provision of corporate and financial information:

• There were four percent fewer UK M&A and ECM transactions announced during Q2 than in the period January to March (Q1) 2009 (from 1,019 deals to 976 deals). The total value of transactions was £55 billion, 17 percent down on Q1
• The number of deals announced in Q2 2009 was just over half that of the 1,747 announced in Q2 2008. The total value of transactions was down 39 percent year-on-year (from £90.7 billion)
• With 21 deals, JP Morgan Chase & Co was the best performing financial advisor by volume. Credit Suisse saw the highest value of deals (£20.6 billion combined)
• Eversheds provided legal advice on the highest number of transactions (19) in Q2. The leading legal advisor by value was Linklaters (£21.3 billion combined)

Brian Rarity, Strategic Consultant with Corpfin, commented: “In the current environment deals can easily be derailed or delayed, and the overall decline in deal activity is concerning. The performance of Greater London, an area we would expect to lead the recovery, gives rise to some cautious optimism.  Clearly we need another quarter of improving results to restore some measure of the confidence needed for a return to normalcy.”

Graph 1: UK deal volumes by quarter 2007-2009


Graph 2: UK deal values by quarter 2007-2009


UK deal sizes

Large deals (£100m+*)

• A total of 70 M&A and ECM deals with a consideration over £100 million* were recorded in Q2 2009, up from 53 in Q1. The total value of large transactions, decreased by 19 percent to £49.3 billion
• There were nine transactions with a consideration of over £1 billion each recorded in Q2, resulting in a total value of £31.6 billion, a 32 percent decrease on the £46.6 billion brought by 11 deals in Q1 2009
• The largest transaction in Q2 2009, was the announcement by Rio Tinto Plc that it is planning a rights issue to raise £9.3 billion

Mid-cap deals (£10-£100m*)

• In the mid-cap range both deal volumes and values increased in Q2.  151 transactions, worth £5.1 billion, represented a 15 percent and three percent increase respectively compared to Q1
• The Q2 2009 volume and value figures were, however, down on the ones of Q2 2008, when 300 transactions worth £10.2 billion were recorded.

Small-cap deals (under £10m*)

• In Q2 the small-cap range improved on the previous quarter by volume but not by value.
• Small deals accounted for 225 announced transactions and a deal value of £659.1 million in Q2 2009, in contrast to Q1’s 206 deals worth £662.2 million.

UK deals by regions

Only Greater London and Scotland recorded a larger number of M&A and ECM deals in Q2 than Q1, an increase of 7.2 per cent and 1.2 per cent, respectively.  Five regions saw the total value of transactions increase: Greater London (18 percent), the Midlands (776 percent), North West (1 percent), North East (14 percent) and Northern Ireland (up 780 percent).

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 Q2 2009.

Table 1: Financial advisor deal activities by volume Q2 2009

Table 2: Legal advisor deal activities by volume Q2 2009

Table 3: Financial advisor deal activities by value Q2 2009

Table 4: Legal advisor deal activities by value Q2 2009