Central, South American M&A At Lowest Level In Ten Years Despite Global Boom

  • A new Mergermarket report shows the world on pace for a record level of M&A activity in 2015.
  • Through the first three quarters, the world has witnessed $2.87 trillion in M&A deals.
  • Despite the boom, slumping oil prices have led to a rapid decline in M&A activity in Central and South America.
  • Mergermarket just released its global M&A report for the first three quarters of 2015. Here’s a breakdown of the key findings.

    The Numbers

    Through the end of Q3, the world has witnessed about $2.87 trillion in global M&A deals in 2015. That number represents a 21.1 percent increase over the first three quarters of 2014 and puts the world on track to break the all-time record for total annual M&A value this year, eclipsing 2007’s peak number of $3.66 trillion.

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    Central, South American Slump

    Despite the global boom in M&A activity, Central and South America have been left out of the party. Falling oil prices have weighed heavily on the economies of many countries in the region and total M&A values have fallen by an incredible 56.6 percent during the first three quarters of 2015.

    Mega-Deals

    According to the report, the world has witnessed a record-paced number of $1 billion-plus mega-deals so far in 2015. The 43 mega-deals through the first three quarters of 2015 have been worth a combined $1.1 trillion. This year's total number of mega-deals falls only eight deals short of 2006’s record of 51.

    The three largest deals so far this year are the Royal Dutch Shell plc (ADR) RDS RDS $81.2 billion buyout of BG Group plc (ADR) BRGYY, the Charter Communications, Inc. CHTR $77.8 billion buyout of Time Warner Cable Inc TWC and the Energy Transfer Equity LP ETE $55.9 billion buyout of Williams Companies Inc WMB.

    Disclosure: The author holds no position in the stocks mentioned.

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