LatAm M&A Bucks Global Slump

LatAm M&A bankers may be crying over the demise of Vale-Xstrata – which could have added $90bn to the year’s volume – but they are doing much better than their peers in other markets. First quarter targeted volume was $25.86bn from 203 transactions, up 39% year-on-year in volume terms, according to preliminary data from Dealogic. This compares to a 40% decline in global M&A to $652.6bn in 1Q 2008, the lowest since Q1 2004 ($557.3bn). “While volume has decreased, deal count was up 4% from 1Q 2007 driven by deals between $100m and $1bn, now accounting for 40% of global volume, up 13 percentage points from Q1 2007,” says Dealogic. EM targeted M&A activity meanwhile rose 3% year-on-year, to $169.4bn. This was 34% less than in Q4 2007. EM volume was 26% of global M&A volume, up 11 percentage points from Q1 2007 and the highest start to a year on record. “Acquisitions by EM companies into developed markets accounted for 30% of total EM acquirer M&A volume ($50.2bn via 221 deals), up 86% from in Q1 2007 ($26.9bn via 127 deals),” says Dealogic.