The calm before the storm for Irish M&A

The domestic economy is slowly awakening from its five-year coma, but Ireland’s corporate financiers must have hit the snooze button for a cheeky lie-in during the third quarter. Either that, or they were off enjoying the heatwave.

According to the latest M&A Tracker Survey by Investec, the number and value of buy-outs involving Irish companies dipped sharply during the period.

Figures released yesterday by Investec’s corporate finance team show that 43 deals totalling €8.5 billion were completed in the quarter, down from 56 in the same period last year. Most activity was in IT, with 28 per cent of deals, including Accenture’s €8 million purchase of Grameenphone IT. Media and Publishing acounted for 11.6 per cent, including Lonsdale Capital’s swoop for CJ Fallon.

The total value of the deals was more than three times the same period in 2012, but that’s not the full picture. Some of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world are domiciled here.

With consolidation currently ripe in that sector the drug companies tend to skew the figures. Elan’s €4.9 billion sale to Perrigo, which had little effect on this island, was the culprit this time round.

Investec prefers to measure the health of M&A activity by the number of deals, rather than value. Using that metric, 2013 has been disappointing so far. About 139 deals were recorded in the first three quarters of this year, down from 167 in the same period last year. Total deal volume for last year was 228, and Investec predicts this year’s haul will fall well short of that, and will also be down sharply on the 218 deals of 2011.

One bright spot was that Irish companies bought 16 international firms during the period, up from 15 in 2012. Corporate Ireland is clearly seeking growth again.

But is all this really a lull, or just the relative calm before the storm? IBRC only recently started to market its corporate loan book. Shortly after those debts change hands, so too will the ownership of many of the companies involved.