11 MEDIA talk | FLEXIBLE, VERSATILE, RESILIENT
UK MEDIA M&A
UK media transactions declined by a momentous 54% in H1 2020 when compared to H1 2019. February recorded the highest number of deals in H1 (c.36%), and while the deals did not completely evaporate in subsequent months, activity slowed considerably.
FIGURE 3: UK M&A VOLUMES AND VALUES (MEDIA SECTOR 2004-H1 2020)
Roughly half of all UK deals were domestic in nature, in line with the long-term trend for the UK market, while the United States and Western Europe were the two dominant sources of inbound deals. PE, a regular catalyst for deals in the media market, played a leading role supporting c.40% of all acquisitions of UK media targets. The significant proportion of deals supported by PE not only represents relative consistency in PE buyout activity over the period, but also suggests that trade buyers have been more cautious over the first half of the year, focusing on their own business resilience and largely switching off M&A activity.
180 DEAL NUMBER
50,000 DEAL VALUE (GB£m)
160
40,000
140
120
30,000
100
80
20,000
60
40
10,000
THE VOLUME OF TRANSACTIONS SAW A SIGNIFICANT DECLINE IN THE MIDST OF AN HISTORIC LOCKDOWN AND VOLATILITY IN THE MARKETS.
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0
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2019 2020
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