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By Matthew Quinn
Cross-border mergers and acquisitions have gotten off to a strong start this year, totaling $84.5 billion so far, up 79 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to data from Thomson Reuters. And U.S. companies have been the preferred targets.
Two of the five biggest deals of the year were struck this week. Bharti Airtel bid $10.7 billion for Zain Africa, making it the largest cross-border deal to date. Norwegian fertilizer producer Yara International's proposed $3.4 billion acquisition of U.S.-based Terra Industries is the fifth biggest.
Cross-border deals have accounted for 32 percent of worldwide activity, compared to 24 percent last year at this time.
U.S. companies have been by far the most targeted in such deals, accounting for 28 percent of the volume total, or $23.9 billion. Six of the ten largest cross-border acquisitions have involved U.S. targets. The biggest deal involving a U.S. company was Japanese wireless operator KDDI's acquisition of Liberty Global's stake in Jupiter Telecommunications for $4 billion. Other large deals included Nestle's acquisition of Kraft's frozen pizza business and French oil company Total SA's purchase of a stake in Chesapeake Energy Co.'s Barnett Shale assets.
Conversely, U.S. companies have not been big overseas acquirers so far. Only J.P. Morgan Chase's $1.7 billion deal for RBS Sempra's commodities unit cracked the top 10 biggest deals.
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