Mergermarket has released its M&A roundup report

Mergermarket has released its M&A roundup report for the third quarter (Q3) of 2014 for Canada. Take a look at the full report HERE.

A few key findings include:

· In line with the overall strong M&A activity in North America, the Canadian market also showed robust performance in Q1-Q3 2014. But while the flurry of mega-deals in the US led to significant increases in the total deal value, Canada experienced a record-setting number of deals.

 

· In fact, Q1-Q3 2014 (461 deals) had the highest deal count for any previous comparable period on Mergermarket record (since 2001). A more granular analysis shows that Q2 2014 (185 deals), the strongest quarter by deal count in history, contributed the most to the growth, followed by 150 transactions in Q3, the third busiest quarter.

 

· Even though the energy, mining & utilities sector has always been the bread and butter of Canadian M&A, it nonetheless almost doubled the total deal value from Q1-Q3 2013 (100 deals worth US $16bn) with 144 deals valued at US $31.4bn. The largest energy, mining & utilities transaction was the purchase of Altalink, a transmission company, by Berkshire Hathaway for US $5.5bn. The majority of these were strategic acquisitions with 135 deals worth US $30.7bn and nine deals worth US $734m for private equity buyouts.