Business makes a big deal of 2000

Irish companies were involved in record merger and acquisition activity, spending more than €9 billion (£7.1 billion) on acquisitions last year - a 50 per cent increase on the 1999 figure, according to details compiled by The Irish Times.

And overseas interest in Irish companies reached new intensity last year, with almost €10 billion of acquisitions - almost four times the 1999 figure. That figure for acquisitions of Irish companies from overseas reflects the year's two big telecom deals: Vodafone's proposed €4.5 billion takeover of Eircell and British Telecom's €2.4 billion takeover of Esat Telecom.

Dublin's corporate financiers believe, that with interest rates likely to fall, we can expect more of the same next year, although whether 2000's extraordinary activity will be matched remains to be seen.

Elan is the biggest company on the Irish stock market, so it is probably appropriate that it should be the year's biggest spender with the €2.1 billion acquisition of Dura Pharmaceuticals the biggest single takeover by an Irish company.

CRH has always been more acquisitive than most with several corporate development teams worldwide sourcing out acquisitions. That emphasis on acquisition bore fruit last year with CRH involved in almost 40 different deals in Europe and North America. Many of those were the firm's traditional latch-on acquisitions, small in terms of size but all part of a low-risk strategy.

But CRH was involved in some large acquisitions, notably the €425 million takeover of Swiss cement group Jura and two big deals in the US, Shelly for €365 million and Dolomite/Northern Ohio for €167 million.

The food sector has usually been a hive of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) mainly due to Kerry. But last year, Kerry confined itself to modest (at least for it) ingredients acquisitions. Greencore was the most voracious Irish foods company with the €588 million (inclusive of debt) takeover of Hazlewood Foods its biggest yet. The Hazlewood deal could transform Greencore into a major player in the convenience foods industry in Europe. But the key to the acquisition's success is Greencore's ability to rationalise Hazlewood and particularly how successful it is in generating the €150 million of asset disposals it has targeted for the next 12 months.

Independent News & Media has usually been the dominant player in media acquisitions in Ireland, and its takeover of the Belfast Telegraph showed Independent had not lost its appetite.

Last year also British media groups arrived in force with Scottish Radio Holdings buying the Kilkenny People Group and Ireland on Sunday, Guardian Media buying 45 per cent of TV3 and Ulster Television buying Cork radio group County Media.

All those takeovers of Irish radio, TV and regional newspapers were done at prices which raised some eyebrows. Certainly, they will have registered with remaining owners of privately-owned Irish media groups.

The €9 billion-plus spent on Irish acquisitions by overseas firms is distorted by the Vodafone/Eircell and BT/Esat deals, but there were other sizeable deals, notably Debis Aerfinance's €852 million takeover of Aerfi (the former GPA) and Bank of Scotland's €348 million acquisition of ICC Bank.

But it was not just in telecoms and banking that sizeable deals took place. Many Irish companies that would never have claimed to be household names were bought out by overseas companies. The acquisitions straddled a variety of industries and sectors.

Not many people outside the transport industry have ever heard of Imari but it was sold to Mersey Docks for more than €25 million. Irish Express Cargo might be better known but few people outside its business probably thought it would end up being sold to Flextronic for €67 million.

Inevitably, last year saw a collection of buyouts of Irish dot.coms, some of which were barely years old but went for multimillion pound prices. The best example was Zartis, a year-old Internet design and development firm bought by US group Breakaway Solutions for more than €19 million. It made Zartis's three twenty-something founders multimillionaires.