Mergers and acquisitions up with 60 deals signed

CORPORATE ACTIVITY in Ireland jumped in the second quarter, with 60 merger and acquisition (MA) deals completed between April and June, a report by NCB Corporate Finance shows.

This compares to 51 deals in the first quarter of this year and 46 in the second quarter of 2011.

A total of 16 transactions by cement-maker CRH boosted MA activity in the second quarter of the year, NCB’s MA tracker survey found. Excluding the impact of CRH’s shopping sprees in both periods, deal volumes fell 10 per cent quarter-on-quarter.

The total value of the deals was €540 million, up 43 per cent on the second quarter of 2011 but shy of the €792 million recorded in the first three months of the year.

NCB Corporate Finance said it expected companies would continue to get their chequebooks out in the months ahead, with the activity partly stemming from viable businesses picking up distressed ones. “Sectors that have experienced the most activity in the past 24 months, namely financial services, food services and IT/telecoms, continued to see high levels of activity and we expect this to continue for the remainder of the year,” said NCB Corporate Finance director Jonathan Simmons.

Foreign acquisitions by Irish companies were prominent during the quarter with 28 deals completed, up from 19 in the first quarter. These included CRH’s purchases, worth a total of €240 million.

There were a further three deals in the building, construction and property sector: Premier Forest Products’ acquisition of Brooks Group, and Hevac heating’s purchase of both Tubs Tiles and Heat Merchants from the BHT Group.

During the quarter United Drug acquired Watermeadow Medical for €16.3 million, Greencore bought HC Schau Son for €14 million, DCC Healthcare acquired Vitamex Manufacturing for €7 million and Accenture purchased Spain’s Neo Metrics Analytics for an undisclosed amount.

There was just one management buyout in the quarter, with directors of Celtic Media Group acquiring the business from Dunfermline Press as part of a “pre-pack” receivership deal. Australian investment group AMP Capital’s acquisition of Viridian’s Eco Wind Power for €150 million was the largest transaction in the industrial sector in the quarter.