NW deals values plunged 62% in 2008

THE value of deals in the North West plunged 61.7% in 2008, to £8.8bn from £22.9bn, according to figures out today.

The full-year figure is just £600,000 more than value of deals done in the final three months of 2007 and reflects the lack of confidence to do major deals and more tellingly the lack of credit available to fund them. 

And the value of deals in the fourth quarter of 2008 showed a huge 75% decrease to £898.3m, from the third quarter figure of £3.6bn.

The region saw a total of 745 merger, acquisition and initial public offering transactions in 2008, an 11.2% drop on the previous year’s 839 deals, according to data from financial information company Corpfin.

Deals volumes in the North West continued to rise from the beginning of 2007 to a high of 234 in the second quarter of 2008, before dropping off significantly in the second half of the year. The number of deals announced in the final quarter of 2008 decreased by 23% to 124, compared with 161 in the third quarter.

While the figures make depressing reading, the economic climate has not impacted deals volume in this region as severely as the UK as a whole, which saw a 21.5% decrease in deals for the year to 5,251. The value of UK transactions, however, was down 54% on last year to £207.4bn.

Grant Thornton Corporate Finance was financial adviser on the most North West deals in the year (32), followed by Deloitte (22), KPMG corporate finance (19) and BDO (17). Meanwhile, Halliwells was the top legal adviser with 51 deals under its belt, followed by DLA Piper (46), Brabners (42), and Eversheds (28).

Just 18 large transactions – worth more than £100m – were announced in 2008 with a total deal value of £5.3bn, while 2007 brought 56 of them worth £17.2bn. The only deal in the region over the £1bn mark in 2008 was Co-operative Group’s acquisition of Somerfield for £1.57bn.