Global M&A space hots up;sees deals of $ 27 bn in a day

After a lull in the merger and acquisition space, big ticket deals are dominating the global M&A segment with as many as five separate billion-dollar deals worth $ 26.7 bn being announced in a single day.

"There were five deals above $ 1 billion announced on April 20, the highest number in a single day since October 13 2008, when 10 such deals were announced driven by the Government bailouts of the UK banks," global deal tracking firm Dealogic said.

Though there is a 14% decline in volume of big merger and acquisition deals so far this year but there has been a significant upsurge in big-ticket transactions. 

"Volume of M&A deals above $1 bn reached $ 449.3 bn so far this year, down 14% from $ 521.1 bn in the corresponding period a year ago," Dealogic said adding "however they account for 68% of the total volume, compared to 46% in 2008 YTD." 

The largest deal that was announced on April 20 was the PepsiCo's acquisitions of additional stakes in Pepsi Bottling Group and PepsiAmericas for a total of $13.3 bn.  

Besides, the other large deals that was announced include Oracle's acquisition of Sun Microsystems for $7.4 bn after the collapsed discussions with IBM, and acquisition of Stiefel Laboratories by GlaxoSmithKline for $3.6 bn, which is in line with this year’s increasing trend in healthcare M&A.