Regent Logo

Mergers and Acquistions News

Categories:

March 14th 2011, 11:32AM

Mergers and acquisitions in Britain have reached a four-year high, reaching £56.3 billion so far this year.

Dealmaking between UK firms and overseas companies has surged this year, following a three-year slump where many companies refused to spend during the economic downturn, according to a report by research group Thomson Financial.

The figures show a 164 per cent increase on last year's seven-year-low of £20.4 billion, reports the Guardian.

A £5.6 billion deal between oil giants BP and India's Reliance Industries was one of the deals which boosted the market. A £5.3 billion takeover deal between Ensco and American firm Pride International also helped the surge.

Henry Jackson, managing partner of London based investment firm OpCapita, told the news provider: "There has been a significant increase in deal activity as the huge number of transactions that have been bottlenecked in the past few years begin to get released."

Markets have clawed their way back up to this rate of mergers and acquisitions from a huge slump in deals in spring 2009. British deals fell to just £0.7 billion – a 40-year low, according to the Independent.
 ADNFCR-1833-ID-800459297-ADNFCR

 

Related News