Latest M&A Statistics for Q3 2021
The UK Office for National Statistics have just released their latest statistics for Q3 2021 for Mergers and Acquisitions involving UK companies for Q3 2021, during the period July to September 2021.
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 Q3 2021 Headlines
The total number of completed monthly deals in Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2021 fell from 164 to 136; this follows a slight downward trend in the number of transactions in recent months since the peak of 292 in March 2021.
Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2021 saw 453 completed mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions, a slight decrease of 37 when compared with the previous quarter (490) yet a sizeable increase of 128 when compared with Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2020 (325).
In Q3 2021 outward M&A was valued at £32.8bn, £24.6bn higher than the previous quarter (£8.2bn).
The total value of inward M&A during Q3 2021 was £10.7bn, £18.0bn lower than in Q2 (Apr-Jun) 2021 (£28.7bn)
Monthly UK M&A Q3 2021
M&A activity like many other industries has been affected by Covid-19, and the total number of completed monthly domestic and cross-border M&A fell to a low of 58 in May 2020. After this decrease, M&A activity started to recover with an upward trend to a new peak of 292 in March 2021 – the highest of all months from the data since January 2019. However, in April 2021 there was a sizeable decrease compared with March 2021 (from 292 to 160), which continued to May 2021 (149). Despite an increase to June 2021, there has been a slight downward trend through to September 2021, when 136 completed transactions were recorded.
The total number of monthly domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies from January 2019 to September 2021 ranged from 58 to 292
Monthly domestic M&A activity declined slightly between July (71) and August 2021 (69), continuing the decline to record 64 transactions during September 2021.
Similarly, inward M&A also decreased between the months of July (64) and August 2021 (59), before declining further to 48 completed transactions during September 2021.
The number of monthly outward M&A has followed a relatively flat trend since February 2021 (25) through to September 2021 (24).
Notable M&A deals for Q3 2021
Outward acquisitions include: Astra Zeneca Plc of the UK, which acquired Alexion Pharmaceuticals INC of the USA and Intertek Group Plc of the UK, which acquired SAI Global PTY Ltd of Australia
Inward acquisition: Electronic Arts Inc of the USA, which acquired Playdemic Ltd of the UK.
Domestic acquisition: UK’s Biffa Plc which acquired Syracuse Waste Ltd/Viridor Waste Management of the UK.
The Bank of England’s Agents’ summary of business conditions report for Q3 (Jul-Sep) 2021 states that in recent months there has been a “recovery in economic activity” and reports “good level of demand across a range of activities”, which included M&A.
The above data for M&A Statistics for Q3 2021 was extracted from the Office of National Statistics; full details here.
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Tags: M&A Statistics, M&A Stats, Office for National Statistics, Q3 2021, UK