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By Matthew Quinn
Energy and power continued to be the busiest sector for deal making, with five of the seven deals valued at more than $1 billion announced during the week of April 16 concentrated there, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
The largest deal of the week was Sinopec of China's $4.6 billion acquisition of ConocoPhillips's 9 percent stake in Syncrude Canada.
Independent energy company Apache paid $3.9 billion for Mariner Energy, including the assumption of debt. It was the second largest deal globally and the largest involving US assets. The third largest deal was RRI Energy's $2.6 billion merger with Mirant Corp.
Deals in the energy and power sector have totaled $133 billion so far this year, an increase of 41 percent from the same period in 2009, Thomson Reuters data showed. The sector has accounted for over 31 percent of the total M&A market and is the top industry in 2010.
The biggest deal not involving energy companies was the unsolicited $1.9 billion bid by Canadian convenience-store chain Alimentation Couche-Tard for US-based Casey's General Stores.
Private equity even managed to put together a deal in excess of $1 billion, with Cerberus Capital Management agreeing to buy private military contractor DynCorp International for $1.5 billion.
There are signs that M&A activity could pick up in the coming months. A survey released Wednesday by Ernst & Young found that 57 percent of businesses said they are likely or highly likely to make an acquisition in the next 12 months, compared to 33 percent six months ago. In fact, 47 percent expect to do so in the next six months.
In a speech to M&A lawyers on Thursday, JP Morgan Chase investment- banking head Douglas Braunstein said deal chatter is getting louder.
"The number of inbound calls we have had from clients who've said 'Please dust off your work on the following target' have increased dramatically in the last several weeks," Braunstein said, according to Bloomberg. "Now in fairness, as all of you know in the deal profession, there's a long distance between the cup and lip."
In fact, he predicted that the announced level of deal activity won't pick up until the second half of the year at best.
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