Thursday 30 July 2015 9:56 am

Conservative election victory creates M&A bonanza

The run-up to the election may seem like ancient history now, but there's no doubting businesses were worried about what would happen if the wrong sort of coalition, or even – gasp – Labour, came to power.

So it's hardly surprising that in the weeks following the Conservatives' surprisingly decisive win, the City celebrated, sending the number of early-stage mergers and acquisitions up 53 per cent in June

That's according to a report by M&A adviser Intralinks Holdings, which also suggested that despite the upsurge, UK M&A is still lagging behind, with a four per cent rise in activity, compared with a 10 per cent jump in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Nevertheless, the report showed global M&A is expected to reach record levels in 2015, increasing 11 per cent. That means the number of deals will beat 2007's record high.

And despite worries of contagion from the Greek crisis, dealmakers in France, Italy and Spain are having a stellar year, with a 30 per cent rise in activity.

In fact, dealmakers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa seemed generally unperturbed by the threat of a Grexit – instead, they said the global economy will have the biggest impact on activity.

“UK early-stage M&A activity appears to have recovered its momentum following the Conservative party’s victory in May’s General Election," said Philip Whitchelo, Intralinks' vice president of strategy and product marketing.

"We could see a stronger second half of the year for UK M&A as deals that were slowed down or put on hold due to the election are accelerated.”