Automotive Insights 2005

September 2005

Automotive Insights 2005 is an annual review of M&A activity and key trends within the global automotive sector by PricewaterhouseCoopers Corporate Finance.
The automotive industry worldwide is currently in the midst of wholesale restructuring with continuing consolidation and a fair number of distressed situations. Despite these deal drivers the sector experienced a slight fall in deal volumes last year, although some major 'aftermarket' deals boosted overall deal values.

With US corporates largely absent from acquisitions, much of the focus was on Europe's mid-market and less on US-inspired mega-deals. The M&A arena in Asia was also relatively quiet last year with fewer major OEM manoeuvres.

Despite the gloom hanging over the global automotive sector, target valuation multiples continued to rise last year, pushed on by the apparently insatiable investment appetite of the private equity houses. Faced with a portfolio of highly leveraged automotive assets, some of which are not achieving budget, and limited trade exit options, they are expected to become increasingly cautious.

This edition of Automotive Insights presents just some of our thoughts on the automotive sector - a challenging industry in which PricewaterhouseCoopers, with its experienced and dedicated sector team, is firmly entrenched. As always, your feedback and responses are extremely valuable and if you do have any comments or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact one of the team.

You can download this publication on our Global automotive pages.