“The M&A Market Is Very Active In Spain, There’s A Lot Of Available Cash, But A Lack Of Good Deals”
The M&A market in Spain has been very active over the last two years. There is a lot of cash around, but what is lacking are some good deals.
The M&A market in Spain has been very active over the last two years. There is a lot of cash around, but what is lacking are some good deals.
Germany’s public services sector is undergoing a big consolidation process. And the European auto sector also seems to be increasingly driven by M&A. “Technology is a very serious catalyst”, Alphavalue’s analysts point. And dieselgate has been speeding up the process.
Bankia Chairman, José Ignacio Goirigolzarri, has fuelled M&A rumours after saying in an interview with the FT that the bank “fits perfectly with other large Spanish banks, specially BBVA.”
The volume of M&A in the European banking sector has gone from 39 billion euros in 2008 to scarcely 9.5 billion in 2015. And in the first half of last year, it was little over 1 billion euros. Why has there not been more consolidation in the sector? It’s an important question for the European authorities who want to promote banking union to answer.
Cellnex shares have under performed the sector by c.16% since mid -Oct 2016, mainly due to higher government bond yields and the market’s rotation out of yield stocks which, in the case of TowerCos, may have been exacerbated by their dependence on M&A.
Ofelia Marín-Lozano | The exceptionally low interest rate scenario, with short-term rates even in negative territory, are undoubtedly an incentive for major corporate transactions. Being able to get 20-year funding at a fixed annual rate of below 2% is fuelling a slew of M&A deals which, in another scenario, would be prohibitive.
The Spanish banks could use mergers to achieve cost savings of up to 27%, due the increase in asset volumes these transactions would bring. The entities emerging from these tie-ups with over 200 billion euros in assets would cut costs between 8% and 27%, while those with 50-100 billion euros in assets could save between 4% and 20%, according to the latest edition of think-tank Funcas’ bi-monthly Economic Information Journal.
M&A transactions in Spain soared 185.56% in February to 5.305,23 billion euros from a year earlier, according to consultancy TTR’s monthly report. The real estate sector has been the most active so far this year, with a total of 61 operations, followed by the Internet and technology sectors, with 20 and 17 transactions respectively.
UBS | 81 months and 200% higher, this US Equity and Derivatives’ Bull is the third longest since 1932 and surpasses the average of 138%. While age or return alone does not signal The End, increasing volatility, Fed rate hikes, and an M&A boom in its third year have all preceded past tops.
ZURICH | UBS analysts | In addition to setting out our thoughts by sub-sector (capex, mobile devices, semis), we outline themes and stock specific catalysts for 2015, including a review of potential M&A and possible hikes in cash returns. We also highlight each stock’s investment drivers (positive and negative) through 2015. In general we see another robust year for semi capex, softer telecom capex (but stable vendor revenue), ongoing strong growth in low end smart-phones, a medium-term inventory correction in analog semis (with solid underlying trends), and the continuing emergence of mobile payments.