Market observers predict an increase for M&A in Canada’s oil & gas sector for 2017. Key drivers for sector activity include the search for new technologies to reduce costs and emissions as well as ongoing interest from E&P and private equity firms.

 

In order to examine the upcoming trends and opportunities within the Canadian oil & gas sector, Torys LLP commissioned Mergermarket to interview senior Canadian corporate executives and investment bankers for their insights.

 

 

Mergermarket is pleased to present the Baltic M&A Monitor, in association with Ellex. This report provides a detailed look at M&A activity in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, along with forecasts for the year ahead. Consistent deal activity has characterised M&A in the Baltics in 2016. Deal volume across all three countries is up 24% year-on-year to 63 deals, the highest point in Mergermarket history. Value increased 17% to €716m over the same period. While this increase in value is more modest, it indicates renewed enthusiasm for M&A in the region. In 2016, investor confidence was high, and companies are actively pursuing growth through M&A.

 

 

The insurance industry is facing disruption in a variety of forms. New technologies, new competitors, new markets, new regulations, and changing consumer behaviors all offer tremendous opportunities and significant risk to the industry’s legacy business model. This has caused participants to reevaluate their business portfolio and change their strategic objectives, leading experts to conclude that the global insurance industry will soon face a wave of M&A.

 

To find out how this shift towards strategy-aligned M&A is influencing deal activity in the insurance industry, KPMG commissioned Mergermarket to interview 200 insurance M&A decision-makers across all segments and regions.

 

 

Mergermarket is pleased to present Dealmakers: Mid-market M&A in Australia 2017, published in association with Pitcher Partners. Total Australian M&A activity in 2016 closed 12% higher on the prior year, due mainly to a flurry of activity in the last quarter, despite global trends which saw a decline in deal activity of 4%. The nation’s mid-market saw a decline of 17%, with a strong finish towards the end of the year providing solid activity pipelines into 2017. This upswing in mid-market activity experienced in the last quarter of 2016 is expected to continue well into 2017. Current run-rates suggest deal volumes for the first half could be up by 30%-40% on 2016.

 

 

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.