NEW YORK – Following a historic second quarter, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity in the industrial manufacturing sector maintained a strong momentum in the third quarter of 2014, according to Assembling Value, a quarterly analysis of global deal activity in the industrial manufacturing industry by PwC US. With $102.7 billion in deal proceeds recorded so far this year, the first nine months of 2014 have already exceeded all annual totals of the last 10 years.
In the third quarter of 2014, there were 55 industrial manufacturing transactions (worth $50 million or more) for a total deal value of $27 billion. Coming off of the strongest quarter for M&A volume since the fourth quarter of 2007, the number of deals in the third quarter declined 13 percent but increased almost 30 percent over the same quarter last year. On a year-over-year basis, the first nine months of 2014 surged 165 percent to $102.7 billion in 2014 from $38.7 billion in 2013. This increase in value is mainly driven by mega deals (transactions worth more than $1 billion) which accounted for 75 percent of total deal value to date and 62 percent in the third quarter. In addition, divestures made up 38 percent of total year-to-date deal volume and 51 percent of deal value.