São Paulo – This Friday (20th), advisory firm KPMG announced that 204 merger and acquisition (M&A) operations were carried out in Brazil in the first three months of this year. It was the highest figure recorded by the company in the country ever since it started conducting surveys of the type, in 1994. Out of the 204 mergers and acquisitions, 99 consisted of foreign companies buying off either other foreign companies, or Brazilian ones.
KPMG Brazil’s merger and acquisition partner Luís Motta stated that the amount of operations with foreign participation was a surprise. “We had forecasted that M&A activity was to remain strong, despite the international turmoil seen in the last few months. However, the strong foreign share seen during the period was surprising, especially in purchases of Brazilian companies by foreign organizations, which more than doubled from 34 in early 2011 to 74 in the first three months this year,” he said, according to a press statement.
The 204 mergers and acquisitions in the first quarter of 2012 represented a 22% increase over the same period of 2011, when 167 operations took place. Still, there was a slight decline compared with the last quarter of 2011, when 211 companies were merged or acquired.
According to the KPMG survey, 82 operations took place involving only Brazilian companies, the same figure as in the first quarter of 2011. “The different was really the appetite of foreign companies,” said Motta.
The industry with the highest number of M&As was information technology, at 27 operations. In the energy industry, 12 M&As took place, telecom and media had 23 operations, and shopping centres had nine. Port and airport service provider companies and electronic equipment companies had seven operations each.
The KPMG M&E survey is conducted on a quarterly basis and covers operations completed and announced involving companies operating in Brazil. KPMG comprises independent companies affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative. These companies provide consulting and auditing services on behalf of KPMG in 153 different countries.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
