An Acuris Company The comprehensive review of mergers and acquisitions in the EMEA region FY 2017 Deal Drivers EMEA mergermarket.com MERGER OR ACQUISITION If you’re serious about achieving the best deal for your business, then you need to get serious about your document preparedness for due diligence. Scrambling for files when there’s an M&A opportunity opens the door for errors, which could harm your shareholders. Businesses rely on Merrill’s award-winning SaaS technology to help them fully prepare for a rapid deal while ensuring their most sensitive documents remain private and secure. To learn how we can help you, contact us today. +44 (0)20 3031 6300 [email protected] www.merrillcorp.com © Merrill Communications LLC. All rights reserved. All trademarks are property of their respective owners. Mergermarket Deal Drivers EMEA Contents 3 FY 2017 Contents Foreword 4 Telecoms, Media & Technology 42 EMEA Heat Chart 5 Transportation 48 All Sectors 6 Pharma, Medical & Biotech 54 Financial Services 18 Construction 60 Industrials & Chemicals 24 The Middle East & North Africa 66 Energy, Mining & Utilities 30 About Merrill Corporation 73 Consumer 36 Merrill Corporation Contacts 73 mergermarket.com Mergermarket Deal Drivers EMEA Foreword 4 FY 2017 Foreword Welcome to the full-year 2017 edition of While dealmaking activity spanned a variety of With strong economic fundamentals, Deal Drivers EMEA, published by Mergermarket sectors, it was industrials & chemicals which heightened boardroom confidence and strong in association with Merrill Corporation. This took the M&A crown in 2017. Driven by large balance sheets underscoring European M&A, report provides an extensive review of M&A deals in the chemical segment and renewed the positive momentum seen in 2017 looks set activity across Europe, the Middle East and interest in the automotive space, deal value to continue into the coming year. Doug Cullen North Africa. It offers detailed analyses of ended the year having achieved the highest Senior Vice President, Deal Drivers provides readers with an indepth specific regions and sectors. It also identifies annual deal count since the financial crisis. Global Head of Solution review of EMEA-based M&A during 2017 key trends that are set to develop over the Sales, Merrill Corporation A host of megadeals caused the consumer using sector-specific and geographical course of the next six months. sector to become the second-most active data – all filtered through the expert lens The year started with an uncertain outlook in terms of value, with a record start to of Mergermarket journalists. We hope that for European M&A, with ongoing Brexit the year causing 2017 to close with a 2.3x this full-year edition is useful to you and we negotiations and several hotly contested increase compared to 2016. Deals such as welcome your feedback. elections looking to upset political stability. the €24bn merger between eyewear giants Sincerely, However, with the elections mostly returning Essilor and Luxottica and UK wholesaler more stable candidates and confidence in the Booker’s agreed €4.2bn takeover by grocer market growing, the European M&A market Tesco served to boost deal value. has gathered pace. While megadeals eluded the sector in 2017, Positive growth in the Eurozone and relative TMT still posted its highest annual deal count macroeconomic stability supported a healthy on Mergermarket record. Convergence Doug Cullen appetite for deals in 2017, propelling annual between the tech, media and telecoms Senior Vice President deal value to a post-crisis high. One reason sub-sectors has been a key driver of activity. for this uptick in activity has been the growth Meanwhile, consolidation within the media in the number of megadeals targeting the industry is being driven by a need to gain continent. scale in order to compete with international tech players – Facebook, Amazon, Netflix Amid this competitive dealmaking environment, and Google – entering the market. private equity firms are stepping up to the plate. European buyout activity accelerated in 2017, as Despite ongoing Brexit negotiations and leading European funds are under pressure to uncertainty surrounding the future of the deploy record levels of dry powder. Meanwhile, Eurozone, the UK & Ireland attracted the lion’s heightened competition has pushed up share of M&A in 2017. Business services, TMT valuations as PE funds vie for top-class assets. and industrials & chemicals were sectors which proved particularly popular. mergermarket.com Mergermarket Deal Drivers EMEA Heat Chart 5 FY 2017 EMEA Heat Chart Looking ahead to the next six months of EMEA Heat Chart based on potential companies for sale dealmaking, the TMT, industrials & chemicals, Sector UK & Ireland DACH Italy Russia France Benelux MENA Iberia SEE CEE Nordic Total and consumer sectors are expected to generate (excluding the highest number of deals across a number Russia) of markets, according to Mergermarket’s Heat TMT 199 139 60 71 97 54 85 32 35 6 23 573 Chart, which tracks ‘companies for sale’ stories. Industrials and Chemicals 57 188 96 73 72 58 40 30 29 19 15 586 The TMT sector within the UK & Ireland looks Consumer 118 88 154 73 60 73 32 30 29 30 4 539 set to deliver the highest level of deal activity Business Services 104 62 33 27 42 39 17 26 5 3 9 251 over 2018. The need to scale up and widen the Pharma, Medical & Biotech 44 62 22 31 33 27 36 13 9 2 12 233 scope of services offered to businesses will Financial Services 111 46 39 24 30 34 20 24 6 21 4 223 accelerate M&A activity in the fragmented UK Energy, Mining & Utilities 88 32 30 42 12 22 36 15 17 22 10 206 IT and telecom services market for both small and mid-size companies. A strong economy Leisure 54 21 17 20 13 11 14 14 17 8 5 127 is drawing international interest to Ireland’s Transportation 7 24 26 21 10 19 5 9 12 7 9 126 telecoms sector, as shown through Iliad’s €3bn Construction 21 36 13 14 11 21 4 13 8 6 5 120 takeover of Eircom. Real Estate 12 7 4 15 1 5 7 8 4 1 1 51 The German-speaking industrials & chemicals Agriculture 3 3 0 29 1 5 7 2 0 8 1 47 sector – traditionally the top regional Defence 2 0 1 2 1 2 1 0 1 0 0 8 performers within the sector – follows closely Total 820 708 495 442 383 370 304 216 172 133 98 3090 behind. The Chinese government is expected to relax capital strains over outbound investment in 2018. The DACH region will likely be the focus of their attention, as Chinese firms look to improve their industrial capabilities through overseas acquisitions. Hot Warm Cold 150 50 20 100 40 10 60 30 1 Note: The Intelligence Heat Charts are based on ‘companies for sale’ tracked by Mergermarket in the respective regions between 01/01/2017 and 31/12/2017. Opportunities are captured according to the dominant geography and sector of the potential target company. mergermarket.com Mergermarket Deal Drivers EMEA All Sectors 6 FY 2017 Part of the Acuris report on global M&A activity All Sectors mergermarket.com Mergermarket Deal Drivers EMEA All Sectors 7 FY 2017 All sectors Further information European dealmaking displayed impressive by comparison. Deal count, on the other hand, Private equity performs Get in touch growth over 2017, despite ongoing Brexit reached its highest figure since 2007. Within this heated deal climate, buyout value negotiations and political uncertainty across all sectors soared to €140.2bn over On a regional level, the German-speaking threatening to de-rail stability within the 1,423 deals, up 22.5% compared to 2016, Katharine Dennys region garnered the highest proportion of deals Eurozone. A total of 7,439 transactions and reaching a post-crisis high in terms of within the sector in 2017. A total of 359 deals worth €830.4bn announced over the both deal value and count. Record levels of accounted for almost a quarter (24%) of M&A year represents a 12.1% uptick in value dry powder available in the market increased activity within the sector. This prosperity appears compared to 2016, and the highest the pressure on PE funds to deploy funds, in to be at the cost of the UK and Ireland, which deal count on Mergermarket record. turn pushing up valuations and competition saw its share in the sector deal value halve over for assets. According to research firm Preqin, This healthy dealmaking activity took place the year to 9.3%. Ongoing Brexit negotiations Europe-focused funds closed in the third against a backdrop of positive economic are seemingly deterring investment within this quarter of 2017 secured 25% more capital indicators. Eurozone economies grew at their particular sector, as dealmakers choose more than the equivalent period in the previous fastest rate for a decade – 2.5% according stable ground to carry out their investments. year. Intense competition for top-class assets to the European Commission – and the most Consumer carries on resulted in some big-ticket deals crossing rapid rate of expansion since the pre-crisis The year of dealmaking was characterised the finish line, including the acquisition of boom of 2007. Meanwhile, unemployment fell by a flurry of high-profile consumer deals. Unilever’s spreads business by KKR for €6.8bn, to its lowest level since 2009. The sector attracted some of the highest- which marked the second largest buyout in Boardroom confidence resulted in some high- valued deals of the year, with five out of the Europe since the financial crisis. profile deals changing hands over the course top 20 European deals of the year targeting of the year: 28 deals valued at over €5bn the sector.