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Latest M&A Statistics for Q1 2022

The UK Office for National Statistics have just released their latest statistics for Q1 2022 for Mergers and Acquisitions involving UK companies for Q1 2022, during the period January to March 2022.

Please note that these include only transactions that result in a change of ultimate control of the target company and have a value of £1 million or more.

Statistics for Q1 2022 Headlines

The total number of monthly mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals involving a change in majority share ownership decreased between January 2022 (138) and February 2022 (113) before increasing slightly to 120 in March 2022.

There were 371 completed M&A transactions in Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022, a sizeable decrease of 199 deals compared with Q4 (Oct-Dec) 2021 (570) and 239 fewer than Q1 2021 (610).

Estimates for the total value of inward M&A were £11.2bn in Q1 2022, a notable £5.1bn lower than the previous quarter (£16.3bn).

The value of outward M&A was £2.6bn in Q1 2022, £0.7 billion lower than in Q4 2021 (£3.3bn).

Domestic M&A was valued at £4.0bon in Q1 2022, £0.2bn lower than Q4 2021 (£4.2bn).

Monthly UK M&A Q1 2022

Monthly M&A activity has again been affected by Covid-19. The total number of monthly domestic and cross-border M&A reached 138 completed deals during January 2022 before decreasing to 113 in February and increasing slightly to 120 by the end of March.

Monthly domestic M&A saw 56 deals in January 2022, falling to 44 in February before increasing to 59 in March.

Monthly inward M&A saw a month-on-month decrease in completed transactions from 58 deals recorded in January 2022 to 44 in February and 43 in March.

The number of monthly outward M&A deals stayed consistent between January 2022 (24) and February (25) then declined to 18 in March.

The Bank of England’s Agents’ summary of business conditions report Q1 2022 states that “investment intentions improved across a range of sectors in response to increased demand, and as companies restarted projects that had been paused during the pandemic. However, a few contacts thought that the Russia-Ukraine conflict would weigh on sentiment and could lead to investment decisions being delayed“.

Inward UK M&A

The total value of inward M&A fell to £11.2bn in Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022, a decrease of £5.1bn compared with Q4 (Oct-Dec) 2021 (£16.3bn).

Notable inward acquisitions which completed in Q1 2022 were:

Value UK inward M&A

The value of inward M&A between Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2018 and Q-1 (Jan-Mar) 2022 ranged from £2.8bn to £38.8bn

Number of UK inward M&A

There were 145 inward M&A deals in Q1 2022, a decrease of 51 transactions on the previous quarter (196) and 76 fewer than Q1 2021 (221).

The number of inward M&A between Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2018 and Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022 ranged from 81 to 221 transactions.

There were 41 inward disposals of UK companies involving a change of majority share ownership during Q1 2022. These were worth £4.9bn, an increase of £3.2bn on Q4 2021 (£1.7bon) when 24 disposals were recorded.

Outward UK M&A

The value of outward UK M&A in Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022 was £2.6bn, a £0.8bn decrease compared with Q4 (Oct-Dec) 2021 (£3.4bn) yet a £0.6bn increase on Q1 2021 (£2.0bn).

Value of outward UK M&A

The value of outward M&A between Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2018 and Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022 ranged from £1.7bn to £32.1bn.

Number of outward UK M&A

There were 67 outward M&A transactions during Q1 2022, 4 fewer than Q4 2021 when 71 acquisitions were recorded, and 8 fewer deals than Q1 2021 (75).

The number of outward M&A transactions between Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2018 and Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022 ranged from 30 to 88 transactions.

There were 13 UK outward disposals in Q1 2022, valued at £0.3bn, notably lower than Q4 2021 (£2.1bn) when 12 disposals were reported.

Domestic UK M&A

The value of domestic UK M&A was £4.0bn in Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022, £0.2bn lower than Q4 (Oct-Dec) 2021 and £1.1bn lower than Q1 2021 (£5.1bn).

A notable domestic acquisition that completed in Q1 2022 was:

The Berkeley Group Holdings Plc of the UK acquired St William Homes LLP of the UK

Value of domestic UK M&A

The value of domestic M&A between Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2018 and Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022 ranged from £0.9bn to £17.9bn.

Number of UK domestic M&A

There were 159 domestic acquisitions in Q1 2022, 144 fewer than the previous quarter (303) and 155 less than Q1 2021 (314).

The number of domestic M&A between Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2018 and Q1 (Jan-Mar) 2022 ranged from 159 to 335 transactions.

The above data for M&A Statistics for Q1 20212 was extracted from the Office of National Statistics; full details here.

Want to know how the latest UK M&A statistics for Q1 2022 are relevant to your company sale? Then contact us now for a confidential appraisal of market appetite in your industry.

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