Australia Leads World Out Of Mergers And Acquisitions Slump

Australia Leads World Out of Mergers and Acquisitions Slump

Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A) figures for 2009 released this week have highlighted Australia is leading the world out of a slump in global deal making.

Australian M&A activity was up by 33.5% or $US155.2 billion in 2009 according to Thomson Reuters figures released today making it one of the only areas globally that saw any increase. Meanwhile Dealogic figures for 2009 placed Australian-based law firm Allens Arthur Robinson (Allens) among the top two busiest M&A firms in the world in 2009 with $US248.6 billion in deals.

"Australia has been one of the few bright spots in a global M&A market that's been hammered by the global economic downturn," said Ewen Crouch, Allens Chairman and co-head of M&A.

He added that even locally the picture is mixed with Australian inbound M&A activity up by 7.8% but outbound activity is at a 10 year low according to Thomson Reuters figures.

Mr Crouch said strong inbound investment in the Australian resources sector had boosted M&A activity locally given that globally there had been a 28% decrease in the value of deals in the last 12 months.

Mr Crouch said the general consensus among investment banks and law firms was that the global M&A market had hit "rock bottom" and would start to move upwards in the next 12 months.

"The reality is that 2009 will not be remembered as a vintage M&A year, in fact a number of people will be keen to forget it. However as the global economy picks up we're expecting to see an increase in M&A work in the energy and resources and industrial sectors in particular," said Mr Crouch.

"While in recent years we've typically been ranked among the top 15 M&A law firms worldwide, Allens 2009 rankings on the M&A tables for Dealogic (2nd) and Thomson Reuters (7th) again reflect this part of the world has been busier," said Mr Crouch. "Those results also reflect a lot of hard work by our people."

Thomson Reuters figures show Allens was ranked first in Australia for announced deals with 75 deals valued at US$96.355 million and first for any Australia or New Zealand completed deals with 47 valued at US$23.565 million.

Ends

Notes for Editors:
Allens Arthur Robinson has staff in 14 cities and eight countries across the Asia Pacific.

For more information, please contact

Chris Fogarty
Director of Corporate Affairs
Ph: +61 (0)420 928 824
[email protected]

Ewen Crouch
Chairman and co-head of M&A
+61 (0)414 574 958


SOURCE: Allens Arthur Robinson