M&A activity up 31.1 per cent in first half of the year

M&A activity in Ireland is at its strongest since 2008 with 42 deals announced during the first half of the year, according to new figures compiled by legal firm William Fry,

The number of deals announced during the first six months of 2014 is up 31.3 per cent compared to the same period a year earlier and is the second highest first-half results in six years.

Deal values rose to €39.3 billion, the highest ever recorded, due primarily to the €33.9 billion acquisition of healthcare company Covidien by Medtronic. This was the latest in a number of high-profile "inversion deals" that have taken place in Ireland over the last year, which include Perrigo's €4.9 billion purchase of Elan and Actavis's €6.5 billion acquisition of Warner-Chilcott.

Nine of the top ten deals in Ireland involved overseas corporates but 31 per cent of all recorded M&A deals were domestic, up from 27 per cent for the whole of 2013.

Domestically, the consumer food space saw a significant amount of activity in the first half of 2014 with deals including the management buyout of Freshways from Kerry Foods and WHW Bakeries acquisition of Irish Pride Bakeries.

William Fry, which compiled the figures using underlying data from Mergermarket said that while the figures for M&A activity for the first half of 2014 are encouraging, there may be a few speed bumps ahead.

"Despite the broadly positive climate for M&A, Ireland faces a number of challenges that could put a damper on deal making. The levels of public and private debt, for instance, remain troubling. Despite this, there are also many positive indicators pointing to bright future and I would advise cautious optimism for Ireland's M&A marketplace," said William Fry's head of corporate and M&A Bryan Bourke.

Top 10 Irish M&A deals by value for the first-half of 2014

1. Covidien/Medtronic €33.9bn

2. Skillsoft/Charterhouse Capital Partners €1.57bn

3. Bord Gais Energy/Centrica and Brookfield Renewable €1.1bn

4. Vidara Therapuetics/Horizon Pharma €474m

5. Car Trawler/BIC Partners and Insight Venture Partners €450m

6. XL Life Reinsurance/GreyCastle Holdings €411m

7. Fyffes/Chiquita €362m

8. Engine Lease Finance Corporation and Beacon International/ Mitsubisihi UFJ Lease and Finance €285m

9. Bank Of Ireland Group/Dilask €250m

10. AMT-Sybex Group/ Capita €127m