KEY POINTS:
The sale of Telecom's Yellow Pages and the purchase of Formica by Fletcher Building contributed to a 16 per cent increase in merger and acquisition activity for the first half of 2007 compared to the same period a year earlier.
By value, local M&A deals announced in the period were worth US$5.5 billion, figures released by Thomson Financial show.
Goldman Sachs JBWere topped the investment banking league tables, having worked on the Yellow Pages sale and the purchase of Formica. Those deals were worth US$1.6 billion ($2.04 billion) and US$750 ($960 million) respectively.
Second on the list was ABN Amro, who also worked on Yellow Pages and the sale of Canwest Media Works to private equity firm Ironbridge.
That deal was worth US$536 million ($685 million).
Goldman Sachs JBWere co-head of investment banking Andrew Barclay said his firm's position at the top of the tables reflected its traditionally strong position as a global leader in investment banking. Goldman Sachs also took the top spot for worldwide for financial advisory work during the first half of this year.
Other big local deals announced in the first half of the year included the purchase of HSBC's mortgage book by Kiwibank (worth US$500 million), Graeme Hart's purchase of US company Blue Ridge Paper (worth US$338 million), Telecom's purchase of Powertel (worth US$276 million) and the proposed takeover of Tourism Holdings by MFS Living & Leisure (worth US$271 million).
Globally, the value of M&A deals in the first half of the year was up 62 per cent on the first half of 2006.
Private Equity firms continued to play a major role, with US$644 billion in announced deals - 24.3 per cent of the overall volume and a 95.1 per cent increase on the same period last year.
The biggest deal announced was the pending takeover of Dutch bank ABN Amro - worth US$97 billion.
M&A top five
Financial adviser: Goldman Sachs
Value of deals: US$2355m
Financial adviser: ABN Amro
Value of deals: US$2142m
Financial adviser: Deutsche Bank
Value of deals: US$826m
Financial adviser: Citi
Value of deals: US$813m
Financial adviser: Macquarie Bank
Value of deals: US$547.9m
Based on announced deals
