Corporate deals hit 5-year high

Associated Press

LONDON

The current wave of corporate takeovers and mergers is set to grow, with the appetite for deals among executives hitting a five-year high thanks to a strong dollar and low oil prices, a global survey found Monday.

A striking 56 percent of companies assessed say they intend to make acquisitions in the coming year, up from 40 percent in October, consulting firm EY said in its half-yearly report on corporate deal-making. That’s the first time since 2010 that more than half of executives say they plan to make an acquisition in the next 12 months.

And the number of deals in the pipeline, EY noted, is up 19 percent from a year ago.

“2015 will see a surge of new entrants and companies returning to the M&A market to generate future growth,” said Pip McCrostie, EY’s global head of mergers and acquisitions, or M&A.

Already in the first three months of 2015, the value of global mergers and acquisitions hit $888 billion, the highest level for the period in at least five years, according to data provider Dealogic. The second quarter appears to have started strongly with energy company Shell agreeing to take over Britain’s BG Group for $70 billlion, in what is the ninth-largest M&A deal ever.

The EY survey identified the oil and gas industry as one sector that is likely to see more activity in the months ahead. When oil and gas prices are low, exploration for new resources becomes a riskier prospect, so energy companies tend to try to boost growth through acquisitions.

But deals are being struck across all sectors this year, including in technology, pharmaceuticals, health care and food, where Heinz recently said it will buy Kraft for $45 billion.

The appetite for deal-making has recovered over the past couple of years from the lows recorded in the wake of the financial crisis of 2007-08 and the ensuing recession, when companies pulled back on risky investments and sought to rebuild their finances.