We make that $72.4bn – by 08.30 on a Monday morning.
2006 has already surpassed the previous peak for deal-making set in 2000 with last week’s $18.7bn buyout of Clear Channel. Now that benchmark looks some way behind us.
Charles Pretzlik pondered at the end of last week if Friday was the new Monday for takeovers – with CSN’s counterbid for Corus, a second tilt at Enodis for Aga and the sale of Blackwell Publishing to John Wiley & Sons in the US.
But this week has risen to his challenge already. And so we have the largest buyout on record courtesy of Blackstone’s $36bn takeover of Equity Office, the $25.9bn takeover of Phelps Dodge by Freeport-McMoRan and the return of Nasdaq, which has come back with a $5.1bn offer for the London Stock Exchange.
Sizeable deals on another morning look small fry today: KKR’s $3.1bn buyout of Seven Network in Australia and Evraz’s $2.3bn purchase of Oregon Steel Mills of the US.
Barely a month to go until Christmas, and this year’s M&A boom shows no signs of stopping. Time for the bankers to cancel those New Year skiing trips perhaps – while there’s still chance of some refund. For the rest of us, expect some great last-minute deals to Courchevel’s luxury chalets.