Ashurst has published its review of the UK Public M&A market for Q3 2017.
Overview
10 firm offers were announced in Q3 2017 (compared to 18 in Q2 2017 and nine in Q1 2017), with a combined offer value of £13.53bn (an increase compared to £8.68bn in Q2 2017 and £10.75bn in Q1 2017). Of those 10 offers, eight were in cash and four were cash and shares.
In the last quarter, Ashurst mandates have included advising: (i) Credit Suisse and Fenchurch Advisory Partners as financial advisers to AXIS Capital Holdings on its £478m recommended cash offer for Novae Group plc; (ii) Cape plc on its recommended £332m acquisition by Altrad Investment Authority SAS; (iii) Credit Suisse as financial adviser to a Blackstone and CVC led consortium on its £2.96bn recommended cash offer for Paysafe Group plc; and (iv) Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley as financial advisers to Vantiv on its £9.3bn merger with Worldpay.
A summary of the key features of each announced offer is set out in a table in the Appendix.
| Announced bids |
10 |
| Recommended on announcement |
10 |
| Schemes of arrangement |
8 |
| Average big of premia (unweighted) |
43.23% |
| Average of bid premia (weighted) |
29.30% |
During Q3, there were a number of regulatory developments, including the publication of two Panel consultation papers and new Practice Statement No 31. Further details of these developments are set out in the News Digest on pages 2 to 9 of this publication.
