Vitalisation of the Global M&A Market

New M&A Report by ZEW and Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing with articles on mergers and acquisitions

Following a period of reduced transaction activities from February to March 2005, the M&A market substantially recovered in June and July. A new peak has been reached fuelled by 500 major transactions worldwide and a new accumulated transaction value of nearly EUR 190 billion between August 2004 and August 2005. These are the findings of an analysis of the current M&A Report, which henceforth will be published twice a year by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) and Bureau van Dijk Electronic Publishing (BvDEP). Numerous transaction were completed in July such as the merger between Royal Dutch and Shell Transport & Trading creating the new Royal Dutch Shell, the acquisition of Amena Movil by France Télécom or the acquisition of the South African Absa bank by Barclays. In August, transaction numbers and volumes declined due to seasonal factors. However, there is substantial evidence that the M&A market will experience a strong boost over the rest of the year 2005.

The business of investment banks and private equity firms will also pick up. Citigroup leads the investment banks ranking with 104 transactions and an accumulated transaction value of more than EUR 148 billion in the first half of 2005. Displaying an accumulated transaction value of almost EUR 16.6 billion, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company (KKR) ranks first among private equity firms. It is followed by Bain Capital, a company that successfully completed the most projects by far, but has a significantly lower transaction value.

The new M&A Report provides details and further information as well as analyses on the situation of the German banking sector and on acquisition rumours. Starting with this issue, the report will be published twice a year to address current topics and worldwide M&A developments, based on the ZEPHYR dataset. ZEPHYR provides information on 330,000 M&As, IPOs and private equity transactions worldwide.

The M&A Report is given as a supplement to the October 2005 ZEW news. The magazine is available via the ZEW press office (grittmann@zew.de).

For further information please contact

Prof. Dr. Christoph Grimpe, E-mail: grimpe@zew.de

Dr. Oliver Heneric, E-mail: heneric@zew.de

Press Contact

Gunter Grittmann, Phone: +49(0)621/1235-132, E-mail: grittmann@zew.de

Nina Krafft (BvDEP), Phone: +49(0)69/963665-40, E-mail: nina.krafft@bvdep.de, Internet: www.bvdep.de respectively www.bvdep.at