Latin America's M&A value holds steady in first half of 2015

Leading mergers and acquisitions (M&A) database Zephyr reported on Wednesday that the value of M&A companies based in Latin America remained steady in the first half of 2015 compared to the previous six months.

Zephyr also reported a 12 percent increase in value for M&A companies in Latin America for the comparable period in 2014. In the first half of 2015, $157,278 million in deals were recorded, compared to $157,634 million in the second half of 2014 and $140,726 million in the first half of 2014. While volume was down approximately 13 percent from the second half of 2014, it was about the same in the first half of 2015 as it was in the first half of 2014.

The region's top deal by value came from Brazilian and Mexican targets, with global asset sales from both Holcim and Lafarge, two building companies. This accounted for 5 percent of the total M&A value for Latin America.

“Brazil was a significant driver of M&A activity in the first half of 2015, heading the country value rankings with investment of $24,474 million," Lisa Wright, Zephyr director, said. "Although overall M&A value declined slightly in the first half of the year, the drop was very small and the result still surpassed all other six monthly periods since the second half of 2012.”