Experian Releases Mergers and Acquisitions Information for Q4 and Full Year 2009

Nottingham, 4 January 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 Q4 and year-end 2009 for the UK.  According to Experian’s Corpfin business, which specialises in the provision of corporate and financial information, the figures reflect the trend of a traditionally slow Q4 and show the following:

UK

• The UK saw a 24.5 per cent decrease in UK M&A and ECM transactions announced during 2009. There were 4,269 deals announced compared to 5,656 in 2008.
• £272.6 billion worth of transactions were announced in the UK in the year, up by 0.22 per cent on 2008.
• There were 8.4 per cent fewer deals announced during Q4 2009 compared to Q3 2009. Deal volumes decreased from 1,098 transactions in Q3 to 1,006 in Q4.
• JP Morgan Chase & Co announced the most UK deals in 2009, advising on 82 transactions.
• Credit Suisse was the best performing financial advisor by value of deals (£100.5bn).
• Eversheds was the leading legal advisor by volume of deals (90) with Linklaters the leading advisor by value (£111.8bn).

The European picture

·      Europe saw a 23.5 per cent decrease in UK M&A and ECM transactions announced during 2009. There were only 10,905 deals announced compared to 14,250 in 2008.

·      €811.4billion worth of transactions were announced in the Europe in 2009, down by 30 per cent on the €1.159billion recorded in 2008 .

Brian Rarity, Strategic Consultant for Experian’s Corpfin business, commented: “The UK, like the overall European picture, has seen deal volumes continue to decline. Deal values in the UK have remained largely constant year-on-year, with some encouraging signs in Q4. The UK large-cap scene is relatively buoyant and there are good signs in the mid-cap market.”

UNITED KINGDOM IN DETAIL:

UK deal volumes

UK deal values

·      Deal values increased to £73.1billion in Q4, an increase of 59.26 per cent on the Q3 figure of £45.9 billion.

In comparison with the year end result, 2009 saw a total of £272.6billion transactions, a 0.22 per cent increase in comparison with the 2008 figure of £271.9billion.

UK deal sizes

Large deals (£100million* +)

·      In the year-on-year comparison, 296 large transactions were announced in 2009, with a total deal value of £245.7billion). This was 2.95 per cent down on the number of large deals completed in 2008 (305 deals worth £237.3billion)

·      A total of 82 deals with a consideration over £100million were recorded in Q4 2009, up from 80 in Q3 2009.

·      There were 13 transactions with a consideration of over £1billion each recorded in Q4, resulting in a total value of £46.7billion. This compares to £19.1billion from 11 deals in Q3 2009.

·      2009 saw 43 deals with a consideration of £1billion or more announced, worth a total of £171billion, while 2008 recorded 41 transactions and total value of £166.1billion.

Mid-cap deals (£10-£100million*)

·      In the mid-cap range both deal volumes and values increased in Q4 compared to Q3 2009. A total of 202 transactions worth £6.8billion represented a 31.1 per cent and 23.7 per cent increase respectively in volume and value terms on the 154 deals valued at £5.5 billion recorded in the previous quarter.

·      During 2009 as a whole, a total of 665 deals worth £23.6billion were announced, compared to 912 transactions with a deal value of £30.3 billion in 2008.

Small-cap deals (under £10million*)

·      Small deals accounted for 270 announced transactions and a deal value of £827.3million in Q4 in contrast to Q3’s 282 deals worth £866.6million.

·      A total of 1,053 small deals accounting for £3.2 billion were announced in 2009, while 2008 saw 1,319 transactions and £4.3 billion.

Table 3: Comparison of regional deal activity – Volume of deals

Table 4: Comparison of regional deal activity – Value of deals

UK Financial and legal advisors

Experian’s Corpfin insight into advisors’ deal activity has enabled it to identify the most active financial and legal advisors in Q4 2009 and over the year as a whole.

Table 5: Financial advisor deal activities by volume 2009

Table 6: Legal advisor deal activities by volume 2009

Table 7: Financial advisor deal activities by value 2009

Table 8: Legal advisor deal activities by value 2009

ENDS

*Where consideration disclosed

Deal information is based on transactions announced between 1^st July and 24^th September 2009 for quarter three figures and 1^st April and 30^th June 2009 for quarter two figures. Target, bidder or parent of either party must be located in the region which is analysed in order to be included. The deal value of transactions covered in this report is £500,000 or above. Deal activity analysis referring to deal values is based on disclosed actual figures only.