Blog – March 2019

Lies, damn lies and statistics?

Well the Office for National Statistics, the UK’s pre-eminent source of statistical data, released their Q4 2018 M&A data earlier this month.

Overall the position is positive from a value perspective: Inward M&A in the final quarter was the highest level since 2016, whilst 2018 as a whole was up on 2017, though interestingly Outbound M&A was down compared to 2017. Domestic M&A was level with Q4 to a year ago, but overall Domestic M&A for 2018 is at the highest value since 2008.

Acquisitions from Europe and the Americas continue to dominate, with Asia a very poor third (but growing).

What about numbers of transactions? Well here it is difficult to compute due to a change in the way that the statistics were gathered from Jan 2018 onward – what did I tell you!

Nonetheless the key takeaway here is that despite Brexit uncertainty, the market for Mergers and Acquisitions is still in rude health. This certainly reflect our own experience in the Technology sector – and long may it continue!