Worldwide, across all sectors, M&A deal volume, for the ten months ending October 2014, has been robust. The four most active sectors in M&A this year have been Financials, Consumer Discretionary, Industrials, and Information Technology. The following chart shows the transaction volume of these four sectors.
Private Equity buyers have a reported US$1 trillion to invest and large corporates are also looking to put their record cash balances to work. With debt financing readily accessible at favorable rates, leveraging acquisitions has proven to be beneficial for some acquirers. These factors are leading to increased demand and higher M&A multiples as demonstrated by the following chart.
