Mergers and Acquisitions in January 2022
Deal activity in Mergers and Acquisitions emphasised a promising start to the year. According to Business Intelligence Bureau Van Dijk, January recorded 156 transactions for the month, highlighting a 38% increase from the previous month. Overseas acquirers were also noted to be active during this period with a recording of 65 deals, also a 16% increase from December.
The largest transaction of the month was the £5.2 billion acquisition of Element Materials Technology Group Holdings (pte) Ltd by Temasek Holdings (Pte) Ltd. Temasek is a global investor headquartered in Singapore and has been a minority shareholder in Element since 2019. The Group generates annual revenues of circa $1 billion and has grown over 20% a year over the last 10 years. Allan Leighton, Non-Executive Chairman of Element, said: “Element has a highly talented management team and exceptional people across our offices and laboratories around the world. This transaction is a testament to their skills and commitment and creates the launchpad for the next exciting horizon of growth for the company.”
Another significant deal recorded was the £2.2 billion acquisition of Chubb Ltd by APi Group Corporation. Headquartered in the UK, Chubb has approximately 13,000 employees globally and a sales and services network spanning 17 countries serving more than 1.5 million customer sites in Asia Pacific, Canada and Europe. The business is a globally recognised fire and security services provider, offering customers complete and reliable services from design and installation to monitoring on-going maintenance and recurring services. Russ Becker, APi’s President and Chief Executive Officer stated: “Today we welcome the 13,000 employees of Chubb to the APi family and begin the work swiftly integrating Chubb into APi and leveraging the opportunities this acquisition creates. We begin 2022 as the world’s leading life safety services provider. Since announcing the acquisition on July 27, 2021, the level of excitement from our international customers and our teams about the opportunities the combined platform will bring has been extremely encouraging. This validates our belief that the transactions will highly accretive with compelling synergies and that it will help accelerate revenue growth through cross-selling certain products and services.”
Other high value deals for this month include the acquisition of Smiths Medical 2020 Ltd by ICU Medical Inc. for £1.8 billion; Sumo Group plc by Sixjoy Hong Kong Ltd for £803 million; Tombola Ltd by Flutter Entertainment plc for £402 million; Apollo Chemicals Group Ltd by HB Fuller Company for £156 million; and The Derby County Football Club Ltd by No Limit Sports Ltd for £150 million.
JDH Exploration Ltd was acquired by Walkabout Resources Ltd for £100 million. Walkabout Resources’ CEO Andrew Cunningham said: “The relatively early buy-out of the remaining 25% of JDH Exploration supports the company’s view on the mineral prospectivity of the region. Complete ownership will the company much more flexibility and leverage to execute its strategy in the region”.
Some of the overseas deals that took place during this reporting period include the acquisition of Faradion Ltd by Reliance New Energy Solar Ltd; Evrythng Ltd by Digimarc Corporation; Cloudcall Group plc by Xplorer Capital Growth I LLC; and Unruly Holdings Ltd by Tremor International Ltd.
The financial sector proved to be particularly active this period with a number of deals taking place. Some of these acquisitions include The Currency Cloud Group Ltd by Visa Inc.; Charles Stanley Group plc by Raymond James UK Wealth Management Holdings Ltd; Clearpay Finance Ltd by Afterpay Ltd; and Union Bank UK plc by MBU Bidco Ltd.
To conclude, M&A activity in January spans across a number of sectors, with some significant deals contributing to this month’s overall figure. The UK maintains appeal from both the UK and global, with active public trade buyers and private equity investors.
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