Buyout M&A in Europe totals $135bn in 2006

Private equity accounted for 17.2 percent of all European M&A activity in the first half of 2006, slightly down on 23.9 percent for the same period of 2005. However, more cash was invested in a smaller number of deals in the first half of this year.
 
Sponsor-backed M&A in Europe in the first six months of 2006 totalled $134.8 billion (€106 billion) from 657 deals, compared to $108.45 billion from 797 transactions, according to figures from Dealogic.
 
The overall announced M&A figures for Europe, which jumped from $453.2 billion in the first half of 2005 to $787.04 billion so far this year, underlined the re-emergence of corporate buyers.
 
Citigroup topped the advisory list for private equity M&A in Europe with a 40.7 percent market share from 19 deals totalling $54.8 billion. Rothschild and UBS took second and third place, with $50 billion from 40 deals and $34.7 billion from 19 deals respectively. Deutsche Bank and Lazard rounded out the top five.
 
Globally, sponsor-backed M&A has already surpassed 2005 figures in the first six months of this year. Of the record $1,930 billion of global M&A activity in 2006, private equity accounts for 19 percent (€366 billion), compared to 18 percent for the whole of last year.