Kraft Heinz’s withdrawn Unilever bid ranks as the world’s third largest collapsed M&A deal
Kraft Heinz’s scrapped $140bn (£113bn) bid for Unilever marks the third biggest M&A collapse in history, according to Thomson Reuters figures.
US food giant Kraft shocked the financial world on Sunday night, withdrawing the bid just two days after details of the deal leaked.
Read more: Unilever share price plunges after deal talks with Kraft Heinz fall apart
Kraft Heinz-Unilever now sits only behind the 2016 $160bn Pfizer-Allergan merger and BHP Billiton’s $140bn 2008 pursuit of Rio Tinto as the world’s third largest collapsed deal.
Last year saw 1,074 deals worth $808bn collapse. Up from 982 worth $538bn in 2015, this marked the highest number of collapsed deals since 2010 (1,074 also) and the largest combined value of fallen deals since 2008 ($848bn).
| Value, including net debt, of target | Date withdrawn | Target | Buyer |
| 191,522.060 | 04/06/16 | Allergan PLC | Pfizer Inc |
| 188,241.783 | 11/25/08 | Rio Tinto PLC | BHP Billiton Ltd |
| 162,205.458 | 02/19/17 | Unilever PLC | The Kraft Heinz Co |
| 125,474.674 | 07/13/00 | Sprint Nextel Corp | MCI WorldCom |
| 122,340.263 | 05/26/14 | AstraZeneca PLC | Pfizer Inc |
| 102,515.878 | 03/01/16 | United Technologies Corp | Honeywell International Inc |
| 95,645.805 | 08/05/14 | Time Warner Inc | 21st Century Fox Inc |
| 92,606.800 | 10/05/07 | ABN-AMRO Holding NV | Barclays PLC |
| 90,477.629 | 05/21/99 | Telecom Italia SpA | Deutsche Telekom AG |
| 81,761.074 | 04/02/07 | Endesa SA | E ON AG |
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So far this year, Thomson Reuters has tracked 87 withdrawn deals.
This is the lowest year-to-date figure since 2005, although the Kraft withdrawal means the total value of withdrawals so far this year is at its highest during this period – $205bn, up from $54bn this time last year.