Finance Monthly M&A Awards 2015 Winners Edition

Finance Monthly M&A Awards 2015 www.finance-monthly.com 7 M A & AWARDS 2015 IRELAND INTRODUCTION M A & AWARDS 2015 Last year our M&A Awards celebrated a great year, with deal figures far beyond that of the year before. If 2014 was good, then 2015 has blown even that out of the water. According to Fortune, 45 $10 billion+ M&A deals were announced in the first nine months of this year, with a combined total of $1.15 trillion. This is up a gigantic 89% on the same period last year, which was considered good in its own regard. The US dominated with 33 US targeted $10 billion+ deals totaling $858.7 billion, the highest activity ever recorded. Charter Communications’ acquisition of Time Warner Cable for $79.6 billion in May is the seventh largest US targeted deal, another record. Following in the US’ footsteps is Hong Kong, with three $10 billion+ deals to a total of $102.2 billion, the first time deals of this size have been recorded in the country since 2000. As it stands, there is a lot to celebrate. In the context of this improving forecast, deal-makers’ confidence seems to be higher than in recent years and the 2015 Finance Monthly M&A Awards reflects this confidence and the desire to get the deal done. Over several months our research team were kept busy analysing market data, deal volume, deal size and the votes cast by our readership to produce a list of some of the key names in the world of M&A today. Read on to view the 2015 winners. Welcome to the