Mergers and acquisitions activity within the global electricity and gas market

February 2008

The year 2007 saw a continued remarkable expansion in the total number and value of deals in the power utilities sector (electricity and gas) worldwide. A 25% increase put the total power deal value of US$372.5bn nearly nine times above the US$43bn recorded just four years earlier in 2003.

Records continue to be set in the sector for the total number and value of deals and for the size of individual deals. There was little sign of the sector pausing for breath in 2007. There were fewer mega-deals, reflecting the complexity of getting really huge deals over the political and regulatory hurdles, but this was more than compensated by a rise in mid-size deal numbers. There was no clear evidence of a fall-off in deal activity in the second half of the year as the credit crisis broke. Indeed, 57% of all power sector deals, 441 of the total 768 deals, came in the second half.

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