M&A value up

Despite a fall in the number of merger and acquisition deals in the UK so far this year, the value has gone up by 15.7%.

That’s according to global information services company Experian, which today revealed that the total value of UK mergers, acquisitions, flotations, rights issues and placements was £181.4 billion in the first nine months of 2011, an increase of 15.7% on the same period in 2010.

And this was despite the overall volume of deals falling by 6.7% to 3,169.

44.7% of all European transactions involved a UK firm, while 13.8% of UK deals a US firm.

Here in the south west, in the first nine months the number of M&A deals decreased from 474 to 392, but in line with the national trend, value rose – from £12.9 billion to £28.4 billion.

The north west was the only region to see an increase in both value and volume.