UnitedHealth Group's $5.4 billion bid for Brazil's Amil Participacoes SA brings Brazil inbound cross-border M&A activity to $20.9 billion for year-to-date 2012, a 24% decline compared to the year ago period. Brazil target M&A activity totals $50.0 billion so far this year, down 11% compared to year-to-date 2011. Credit Suisse, the sole advisor to Amil Participacoes, tops the ranking of Brazil any involvement M&A advisors, with $24.8 billion from 32 deals. Itau Unibanco, the top advisor at this time last year, has dropped to second this year with $19.2 billion from 53 deals.
Deal making in the industrials, high technology, energy & power and healthcare sectors have all registered year-over-year gains compared to 2011 and account for 71% of M&A activity in Brazil so far this year.
Direct Line Insurance Prices Largest UK IPO in Five Years
The $1.3 billion initial public offering for Direct Line Insurance Group PLC ranks as the largest IPO from a UK company since Eurasian Natural Resources raised $3.0 billion in December 2007 and marks the first listing on the London Stock Exchange since June of this year. Led by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and UBS, the offering pushed the volume of global initial public offerings to $89.4 billion, a 36% decline from year-to-date 2011.
Initial public offerings from high technology, industrial and financial companies account for 58% of year-to-date activity compared to 38% last year at this time. Morgan Stanley leads all global IPO underwriters this year, with 9.4% market share, up from 6.2% during year-to-date 2011. Deutsche Bank ranks second with 6.8% market share, up from 5.9% last year.
M&A Under $1 billion Down 12%
M&A activity under $1 billion totals $738.7 billion for year-to-date 2012, a 12% decline compared to the same period last year. By number of deals, deal making under $1 billion accounts for 98% of year-to-date activity and represents 42% of announced deal value this year. Real estate targets, which represent 13% of overall M&A activity under $1 billion this year, has fallen 6% compared to 2011. Retail and telecom targets are the only two sectors to see year-over-year gains this year.
Morgan Stanley holds the top spot for financial advisory work for deals under $1 billion, up from fifth place last year at this time, while Goldman Sachs has fallen to second. US targets account for 29% of activity, down 11% compared to last year, while China accounts for 9%, a decline of 23% from 2011.
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