Overall M&A activity in 2016 may have fallen short of 2015’s record highs, but dealmaking in the pharma and biotech sector remained consistent. Mid-market activity in this sector showed the most resilience last year, producing 98 deals among pharma and biotech companies in North America. Top targets included Derma Sciences at US$172m, Sentynl Therapeutics at US$171m, and Savara Inc. at US$115m. With deals already in the pipeline and a new year ahead, will the sector continue to hold its ground? Mergermarket, in association with Firmex, a virtual data room provider, interviewed four experienced dealmakers to find out the dynamics at play for North America’s pharma and biotech sector in the year ahead.

 

 

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Mergermarket is pleased to present North Asia M&A: Towards technological convergence, published in association with Merrill Corporation.

 

Five years of roaring M&A growth may finally have found its ceiling as deal totals for acquisitions in North Asia settle into more modest territory, in a year marked by volatility and uncertainty across the globe.

 

At the close of 2016, North Asian deal values had dropped sharply from US$765bn in 2015 to US$533bn, a year-on-year decline of 30%, with a less noticeable drop of 3% in deal volume. Similar declining deal figures have become a feature of individual key economies across North Asia (China, Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea, Japan, Mongolia and Taiwan) as the market begins to steadily rebalance toward more sustainable growth rates.

 

Via an in-depth interview, Marshall Nicholson, Managing Director and Head of Equity Capital Markets at Nomura’s Asia ex-Japan Investment Banking Division, shares insights on charting a path towards deal success.

 

 

Data privacy is an important and complex factor to consider in every M&A deal. Concerns can include a lack of appropriate privacy controls on either side of the table, failure to understand the types of security programs being inherited, and specific regulations unique to different sectors or geographies. These issues, if not properly addressed in the early stages of negotiations, can delay and even determine the success of a deal.

 

In order to identify the security risks and vulnerabilities acquirers and targets face in M&A deals, Shearman & Sterling LLP, in association Mergermarket, is pleased to present Safe Secrets: Dealing With Data Privacy Issues In M&A.

 

 

January’s strong M&A record did not carry over its momentum into February as global deal values and activities fell for the month. Meanwhile, private equity buyouts and exits have slowed down when compared to the pace of Q1 2016. Energy, Mining & Utilities experienced the most activity for any sector but also faced a 27.1% decline in value.

The Consumer sector remained strong with deals such as UK-based Reckitt Benckiser’s US$17.8bn purchase of US baby formula maker Mead Johnson. Cross-border activity for February may have declined in terms of value, but still produced four out of the five top deals for the month.

 

 

Record dealmaking in the energy sector last year amounted to the second-highest total deal volume (1,141) and the third-highest total deal value (US$512.3bn) in history. This activity was due to a wave of consolidations as oil prices hovered around US$50 a barrel. Meanwhile, 437 transactions in the alternative energy space represented more than a third of the sector’s volume. With a solid year for M&A in the energy sector behind us, dealmakers expect that the 2017 market will continue to be just as robust.

In order to gain an understanding of the opportunities and challenges within the energy sector for 2017, Donnelley Financial Solutions commissioned Mergermarket to interview global dealmakers for their insights.

 

 

For more energy M&A insights, join Donnelley Financial Solutions at the Energy Forum.

Energy M&A in Asia-Pacific may not have had a record year in 2016, but it was still one for the record books. While dropping 33% in year-on-year value terms, overall announced deals maintained pace with 2015 (196 deals), closing the year with 198 transactions valued at US$77.6bn.

 

Those amounts, despite the decline, were still the second highest annual totals, according to Mergermarket data spanning the past decade. Perhaps more importantly, M&A activity for the year points to the market’s resilience, especially in the oil and gas space where price volatility has plagued national and international oil companies over the past 30 months.

 

 

Mergermarket is pleased to present Asia Pacific Business Complexities Survey 2017, published in association with Baker McKenzie. 57% of business leaders across the Asia Pacific region see the business environment in which they operate becoming increasingly complex. Successfully plotting a way through today’s volatile business environment demands more resilience and ingenuity than ever before. New challenges arise as soon as old ones have subsided, and the ever changing nature of competition means companies must maintain a consistent, innovative edge. But what are the shared complexities that are ratcheting up the pressure on executives in Asia Pacific? Our survey of 150 senior business leaders from across the region seeks to answer several key questions around business complexity, while drawing out specific industry themes. Along with macroeconomic and geopolitical trends, survey respondents identified the need to innovate via new technology (66%), cost pressures or shrinking margins (64%), disruption via technology (62%), as well as compliance or adapting to new or changing regulations (62%) as the top challenges/complexities on the minds of key decision makers across corporate Asia.

 

 

Global M&A value for Q1 2017 rose 8.9% versus the same period last year thanks to a number of announced megadeals. Year-over-year deal volume fell by 772 deals, however, amid concerns of geopolitical uncertainty among smaller buyers. North America held pole position as the leading destination for acquirers, witnessing a 24.5% increase in value. North America, Africa and the Middle East were the only regions to see deal values increase versus last year’s Q1 activity. Most global activity in Q1 occurred in the Energy, Mining & Utilities sector, a trend driven mainly by reorganizations by midstream companies.

 

 

 

Activist campaigns remained steady throughout 2016, reaching the third-highest annual count since 2009. While the year’s campaigns fell short of 2015’s record-breaking totals, the number of companies facing demands continued at a steady pace, notably among European and Asian companies. In the US, 456 activist demands were made on businesses, up from the 418 made in 2015. In Europe, there have been several high-profile examples of activists obtaining boardroom seats — including companies within the FTSE 100. Finally, in Japan, a surge in activity resulted from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s support for shareholder activism as part of a plan to revive that country’s economy.

 

In order to understand 2017’s latest trends in corporate governance, shareholder activism, and M&A, Donnelley Financial Solutions commissioned Mergermarket to interview global dealmakers for their views.

 

 

The growing availability of data, increasing globalization, and the introduction of new technologies have significantly impacted the sourcing methods and strategies of sell-side targeting. This evolution has given rise to more targeted auctions, more unsolicited bids, and more potential regulatory hurdles to overcome.

 

To better understand how the deal cycle continues to change for sell-side dealmakers, Donnelley Financial Solutions, in conjunction with Mergermarket, presents Navigating The Modern Deal Process: Targeting, the first of a three-part series.