THE SECOND QUARTER of this year has seen a rise in mergers and acquisitions – making it the second-busiest quarter in volume terms since the end of 2008.

The second quarter of 2012 saw a 17.6 per cent increase in merger and acquisition activity on the first quarter of 2012, according to the NCB Corporate Finance M&A Tracker Survey.

In total, 60 deals were completed in the quarter (including 16 transactions by CRH) which have resulted in a 30 per cent increase on the 46 deals completed in the same quarter last year. The total value of the deals during Q2 reached €540 million – representing a 43 per cent increase on the amount recorded in the same quarter last year (€378 million) but a decrease on the recorded in the first quarter of 2012 (€792 million).

“Overall, the second quarter of 2012 has been good with the second highest deal volume recorded in recent years. Sectors that have experienced the most activity in the past twenty four months, namely Financial Services, Food Services, and IT/Telecoms, continued to see high levels of activity and we expect this to continue for the remainder of the year,” said Jonathan Simmons, Director of NCB Corporate Finance.

The report showed that foreign acquisitions by Irish companies were prominent during the quarter, with 28 deals completed.

This included 16 CRH transactions worth a total consideration of €240 million. Meanwhile, the Irish Plcs also involved in transactions this quarter included DCC Healthcare, which acquired Vitamex Manufacturing for €7 million; United Drug which acquired Watermeadow Medical Ltd for €16.3 million; Greencore which acquired HC Schau & Son Inc for €14 million; and Accenture, which acquired the Spanish-based Neo Metrics Analytics SL for an undisclosed amount.

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