Out-Law News 1 min. read
13 Aug 2015, 5:13 pm
A total of 162 European technology companies secured exits for investors worth €47.95 billion, up from 140 companies and €37.53 billion in the first quarter, Tech.eu said.
This means that 2015 has already seen more money raised through exits than the whole of 2014, Tech.eu said, with €85.48bn compared to €80.14bn.
The number of exits rose by 76%, from 92 in the second quarter of 2014 to 192 in the same period this year, and the total value rose 206% from €15.67bn in Q2 2014 to €47.95bn in Q2 2015, Tech.eu said.
The average size of exits has also risen, up 26.45% from €223.8 million in the whole of 2014 to €283 million in the first half of 2015, on exits where the value has been disclosed, the research said.
The top ten largest exits accounted for 78.69% of the total disclosed exits in Q2, Tech.eu said. The largest of these was O2's sale to Hutchison Whampoa (€14.7bn) followed by Jazztel (€3.4bn) and Telecity Group (€3.4bn).
Outside the telecoms sector, the largest deal was the merger of Yoox and Net-a-Porter, at €3.2bn, Tech.eu said.
It is important to note that 62.97% of deal sizes were undisclosed, Tech.eu said. However, this is in line with 2014, allowing comparison between the years, it said.
The US remains the biggest buyer of EU companies, but the percentage of US acquisitions dropped from 37% in 2014 in 24.67% in the first half of 2015.
A briefing issued last week by corporate finance company Regent (1-page / 614KB PDF) said that there were 361 technology, media and telecoms (TMT) deals agreed in Europe in July. This number broke the previous monthly record for deals in the sector which dated back to July 2014, it said.