Despite a dip in the value and volume of offshore deals in the third quarter of 2014, the year as a whole is on track to be among the best showings for offshore M&A in the past decade, according to the Offshore-i report released today by Appleby, the offshore legal, fiduciary and administration services provider.
In the third quarter of 2014, 626 deals were announced involving offshore targets, which in combination were worth US$48.1bn. Following the 677 recorded deals in Q2 2014, the quarter maintains an impressive run of 600-plus deals per quarter that began in 2013, the report found.
In Jersey alone, the number of deals jumped 11 per cent in Q3 2014 when compared to the previous quarter, while total deal value held steady.In the third quarter of 2014, Jersey was home to 41 deals worth a total of US$4.27bn, giving the jurisdiction an average deal size of $104 million, the highest across offshore jurisdictions. While the total value of deals was almost identical to that of the previous quarter, it represented a significant 253 per cent increase over Q3 2013.
Jersey attracted two of the top 10 deals in Q3 2014. In what was also the quarter’s biggest share buyback, Glencore, the mining business based in Jersey, announced plans to buy up to $1.66bn of its shares as part of a promise to return cash to shareholders and rein in spending. The other deal saw Max Property Group selling MPG Opco, a Jersey-based closed-ended real estate investment services firm, for $1.1bn to Marina Topco, also of Jersey and controlled by The Blackstone Group.