Mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies: July to September 2024

• The provisional combined number of domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving a change in majority share ownership was 436 during Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep) 2024; this was 43 fewer than during Quarter 2 (Apr to Jun) 2024 (479).

• There were an estimated total 179 domestic and cross-border acquisitions involving a change in majority share ownership during July 2024, before falling to 130 in August and declining further to 127 during September 2024.

• The value of inward M&A (foreign companies acquiring UK companies) in Quarter 3 2024 was £7.8 billion, £1.1 billion higher than the previous quarter (£6.7 billion).

• The value of outward M&A (UK companies acquiring foreign companies) was £4.0 billion in Quarter 3 2024, £0.2 billion less than Quarter 2 2024 (£4.2 billion).

• Domestic M&A (UK companies acquiring other UK companies) during Quarter 3 2024 was £2.1 billion, £0.9 billion lower than Quarter 2 2024 (£3.0 billion).

The provisional combined number of monthly domestic and cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) saw a notable increase during July 2024 (179), before seeing a sharp decrease in August 2024 (130) and declining further during September 2024 (127). The provisional estimate of total combined M&A in September 2024 (127) was lower than in all months since December 2023 (108).

Domestic monthly M&A recorded 82 transactions in July 2024. This decreased to 57 during August 2024, before decreasing to 52 in September 2024.

Outward monthly M&A saw a small decline in the numbers between July (21) and August (18), before increasing to 27 acquisitions in September 2024.

Inward monthly M&A saw 76 acquisitions during July 2024 and fell to 55 in August and 48 in September.

The Bank of England's summary of business conditions for Quarter 3 (July to September) 2024 reported that:

"Overall, investment intentions continue to gradually improve and are positive for the year ahead, though there are some for whom the outlook remains highly uncertain. Professional services firms report steady revenue growth driven by reasonable, but weakening, fee growth and modest, but rising, volume growth, as some corporate transactions, such as mergers and acquisitions, have increased slightly. While this means some increase in the demand for funding, overall corporate financing activity remains flat on a year ago".

The same report stated that: "Competition continues among banks to lend to the most creditworthy businesses. Contacts report there is greater willingness to lend to businesses for investment purposes, given an improved economic outlook. Mainstream banks are showing greater appetite for mid-market lending and there are signs of rising mid-market private equity activity and of more appetite for tech and early-stage finance, from a low base. Access to credit is still a challenge for small and medium enterprises and remains difficult for firms with high debt, low profitability or limited security."

The provisional value of inward mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of UK companies by foreign companies during Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep) 2024 was £7.8 billion. This was an increase of £1.1 billion, compared with Quarter 2 (Apr to June) 2024 (£6.7 billion), and £3.0 billion more than in Quarter 3 2023 (£4.8 billion).

A notable inward acquisition, which completed in Quarter 3 2024, was the acquisition of Tyman Plc of the UK by Quanex building products corporation of the United States.

Number of quarterly inward mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 179 completed inward M&A transactions involving a change in majority share ownership in Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep) 2024. This showed a small decrease of 8 on the previous quarter (187), and 30 more than Quarter 3 2023 (149).

The provisional estimated value of outward mergers and acquisitions (M&A) (UK companies acquiring foreign companies) was £4.0 billion in Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep) 2024. This was £0.2 billion lower than in the previous quarter (£4.2 billion), and £1.9 billion higher than Quarter 3 2023 (£2.1 billion).

One notable outward acquisition, which completed in Quarter 3 2024, was the acquisition of Amolyt Pharma SAS of France by AstraZeneca Plc.

Number of quarterly outward mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 66 outward acquisitions involving a change in majority share ownership in Quarter 3 2024. This was 15 fewer than in the previous quarter (81) and 19 fewer than in Quarter 3 2023 (85).

The provisional estimated value of domestic mergers and acquisitions (M&A) (UK companies acquiring other UK companies) in Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep) 2024 was £2.1 billion. This was £0.9 billion less than the value reported for the previous quarter (£3.0 billion), and £0.5 billion less than Quarter 3 2023 (£2.6 billion).

Number of quarterly domestic mergers and acquisitions transactions involving UK companies

There were an estimated 191 domestic M&A during Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep) 2024. This was 20 fewer than the previous quarter (211) and 4 fewer than Quarter 3 2023 (187).

Domestic mergers and acquisitions

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of UK companies acquiring other UK companies.

Inward mergers and acquisitions

Mergers, acquisitions and disposals of UK companies by foreign companies.

Outward mergers and acquisitions

Mergers, acquisitions and disposals of foreign companies abroad by UK companies.

Mergers and acquisitions transactions

M&As occur when one company takes control of another company. The internationally agreed definition of an M&A deal is when one company gains more than 50% of the ordinary shares (or voting rights) of the acquired company.

Disinvestments (disposal transactions)

Disinvestment, or disposal transactions, refers to a disposal of the ordinary share ownership of a subsidiary company.

Since Quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2018, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) statistics fully incorporate the Bureau van Dijk (BVD) M&A, which has been renamed Moody's Orbis M&A, data source and methods. The introduction of this new data source increased the coverage of smaller M&A transactions and, therefore, resulted in a discontinuity in the number of transactions reported. Therefore, users are advised to take care when comparing recent estimates with the number of transactions reported for quarters prior to 2018.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on 24 February 2022 and in response, the UK government has imposed a range of economic sanctions on Russia from late February and early March 2022, as described in the Russia  sanctions: guidance on GOV.UK. We will continue to monitor potential impact of the conflict and resulting sanctions in future quarterly releases.

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Mergers and acquisitions Quality and Methodology Information (QMI).

About Office for National Statistics datasets

The datasets for mergers and acquisitions involving UK companies have recently been reviewed to ensure that they meet the accessibility standards outlined in the Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidance on releasing statistics in spreadsheets. This is to ensure that all GSS outputs meet Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, a legal requirement set out in The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility  Regulations 2018.

We welcome any feedback on these changes. Please share your feedback by emailing MA@ons.gov.uk.

Accredited official statistics

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in June 2013. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled "accredited official statistics".

Strengths and limitations

We produce statistics on the number and value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions. This information is presented in the following way:

• transactions are only recorded in our statistics once the deal has been legally completed each transaction has a value of at least £1 million.

• the transactions results in a change of ultimate control of the target company

• all values are in current prices, and therefore have not been adjusted for the effects of inflation.

These are among the main reasons our M&A statistics can differ from those reported in other sources. There can be a substantial time gap between the point at which a deal is announced and when it is legally completed. In addition, in some cases, announced M&A deals do not take place.

Our statistics on disposals (or de-mergers) are also included in tables alongside this bulletin. These are typically fewer in number per quarter, which can lead to greater suppression of statistics to mitigate disclosure. The focus of this bulletin is on acquisitions, although some of the more complex deals can include the disposal of some part of the newly created corporate structure.

It is sometimes necessary to suppress figures for certain items to avoid disclosing information about an individual business. Further information on why statistics are suppressed is available in our Disclosure Control Policy.

It is not uncommon for the value of M&A transactions to vary considerably from one quarter to the next. This mainly reflects the nature of M&A activity in that these capture one-off deals. Therefore, if a particularly high- value M&A deal completes in a given quarter, it can make that quarter seem out of line with those that precede and follow it.

The volatility of M&A transactions also makes it difficult to link M&A statistics with other economic indicators – such as gross domestic product – or global events because of the time it can take between announcing and completing a M&A deal. Therefore, it can be more informative to look at longer-term trends within M&A statistics rather than focusing on quarterly movements.

Details of any notable M&A deals that completed in Quarter 3 (Jul to Sep) 2024 can be found in Sections 3, 4 and 5 of this statistical bulletin. Lists of notable completed M&As valued above £100 million and which took place in earlier quarters, can also be found in previously published Mergers and acquisitions quarterly bulletins.