The M&A market sees a record breaking first half to 2021

The M&A market has again shown its resilience during the first half of 2021 as confidence continues to return to the market, supported by increases in both the volumes and overall values of UK and global dealmaking.

Refinitiv’s Global Mid-Market M&A Review for the first half of 2021 noted a 59% increase in global dealmaking throughout the first six months of 2021 – the strongest first half since records began over 40 years ago. The momentum established in what was an impressively active first quarter of 2021 was surpassed in Q2 with a further 11% increase in total deal values.

Growth within the M&A market has been further supported by a 30% increase in overall deals completed during H1, with almost 29,000 deals completed – another all-time high. The effects of this activity was felt closer to home, as our Group completed 167 qualifying deals between January and June, a year-on-year increase of 90 deals and sees K3 Capital Group completing almost 25% more deals than any other UK adviser.

Some of the most active industries so far this year include the technology, financial and healthcare sectors. The technology sector in particular contributed $145bn to total deal values, with 23% of all deals completed involving a technology company. At KBS Corporate we have seen first-hand an increase in completions within the technology sector, with eight deals completing so far this year. The most notable of these was the acquisition of Tellemachus by Bedroq. The Finance sector saw $80bn worth of deals in H1 2021 – 13% of all total deal values.

Another important factor in the growth of the M&A industry was an increase in deals involving private equity backers, which has doubled since last year and is another record breaking first half. There have been high levels of interest from private equity in technology, healthcare and financials with 67% of private equity deals involving one of the three sectors.

There has also been a notable uptake, 65%, in the number of cross-border deals. This increase has resulted in yet another record-breaking performance. KBS Corporate have completed a number of international deals including Belgium based BontexGeo’s acquisition of ABG Limited. We have also noted high levels of interest from US based companies, including the acquisitions of a golf retail company, a genealogy database provider and a developer of a broker comparison site all by US based companies.

The first half of 2021 indicates that the M&A market as come back from the pandemic thriving. This is supported by record breaking deal values and overall number of completions, which resulted in $629.3bn worth of deals completing and strong support from private equity backed deals and an increase in cross-border transactions.