The Spanish M&A market in 2013

2013 has been a good year in terms of M&A activities, 1,183 operations, amounting to €70.955M. This represents an increase in operations of 29.57% over the previous year.

Most active sectors

The 3 most active sectors have been the Internet, the financial sector and the technology sector, with a variety of differences between them.

While the internet is the sector with the highest number of transactions, 178 transactions, the total amount, €952M, is well below the amount that the financial sector moved, €22,826M, in just 107 transactions. In the technology sector, a total of 105 transactions were carried out for €556M.

"The increase in M&A activity contrasts with the decline in Private Equity activity. It is a reflection of the fact that the current moment is an opportunity for corporations that can contribute much more than money to the growth of investees," analyses Diego Gutierrez of Abra Invest.
Most active buyers

The most active buyers have been Telefónica, with a total of 6 acquisitions including E-plus, making it Europe's second largest telco in terms of mobile customers.
The second place, with 5 acquisitions, is occupied by Joyvio Spain. Joyvio who belongs to the group  Lenovo is the agricultural arm of the holding company and specialises in fruit, tea and wine.

Mitsui & cohas accumulated a total of four acquisitions, including the purchase of the 30% business from the Spanish company Gestamp in America.

Most active vendors

Among the most active vendors are, FCCThe sale of half of its renewable energies business to the fund, with 8 operations, included Plenium Partners.

Renfethe second most active seller in 2013, has completed six transactions, including the sale of the 40% he held at Alfil Logistics a DammThe company's other shareholder, which thus acquires 100% of the company's capital for €1.34 million.

Telefónica, in addition to being the largest buyer, is also the third largest seller with 5 transactions, including the sale of 65.9% for a total cash consideration of €2,467M of the share capital of Telefónica Czech Republic, which includes the activities in Slovakia.