Why M&A activity in SA fell off a cliff in first half of 2018
Despite a global boom in M&A activity, it has all but ground to a halt in SA due largely to fears about political risk
Mergers & acquisitions (M&A) in SA and Africa as a whole in the first half of 2018 have fallen off a cliff, despite an explosion in global M&A activity in the same period. Political uncertainty is the main cause, according to practitioners. In SA, year-to-date figures from Thompson Reuters show 200 deals have taken place — about half the figure for the first half of last year and the lowest in a decade. The value of deals also halved, falling to a 10-year low. Deals have declined across the board, with inbound, outbound and domestic transactions all well down on last year on both a volume and value basis. As SA is a small market, the numbers can be misleading because large deals often skew the picture. But the surprising thing about SA’s decline this year is that it comes at a time when global M&A activity is booming. Clem Daniel, director at Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, says that on the one hand we are seeing positive development, in the form of the ANC trying to isolate questionable mem...
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