M&A activity in the Transport and Logistics sector has shown significant signs of growth in H1 2019, with 47 deals completed involving UK target companies.
M&A activity within the UK and European chemicals sectors has remained steady throughout 2018 completing 233 deals, with a further 116 deals being completed during the first half of 2019.
M&A activity within the healthcare sector saw a 22 deal increase in 2018 compared with the previous year. This trend continues into H1 2019 with an increase in activity compared with H1 2018.
M&A activity in the food and beverage sector has remained in-line with H2 2018, with 61 deals completed involving UK target companies. Total transaction values reached £2.3bn.
Companies looking to transform their business are increasingly looking at data to provide critical operational and strategic insights and drive business-changing initiatives. Most new digital transformation strategies will be driven by data as it can be used to understand how to achieve and maintain a competitive advantage for the business.
The overall picture for industrial M&A activity remained broadly positive, despite the UK as a whole delivering a mixed economic and industrial performance. EEF manufacturing reports showed negative trends across a number of performance indicators, with investment, output and the export balance all showing negative growth trends.
The software sector continues to be defined by innovation and an ever-increasing battle to meet developing customer requirements. SaaS vendors are experiencing tightening margins as a consequence of increased competition and significantly higher cost of acquiring new customers.
Data utilisation continues to be the main driver for the internet of things movement. Companies are desperately trying to utilise the massive quantities of data available in order to make better informed strategic decisions. While the growth in Edge computing could increase the automation of data driven decisions going forward.
