ALG leads Mergermarket M&A league table for both value and volume

A&L Goodbody (ALG) has been ranked the number one Irish law firm for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) by deal volume and value for the first half of 2021, by the leading publication Mergermarket. ALG also ranked an impressive 17th place across Europe and the Middle East for value, with a combined publishable value of €51bn.

Commenting on the report findings, Richard Grey, Head of M&A said: "The rankings accurately reflect the huge amount of work across all teams over the first half of the year. It demonstrates both the strength of our brand and our unique ability to collaborate across our business on the type of large, complex deals that dominated the M&A market the first half of 2021."

He concludes: "As confidence continues to return to global and domestic economies, we anticipate increased M&A activity to continue throughout the remainder of the year. Consistent with the dominant activity drivers of the first half of 2021, we see this activity being driven by continued high levels of private equity activity and public company transactions. We also expect that we will continue to see high levels of activity in the technology, financial services and healthcare sectors."

Prominent deals led by ALG's M&A team during 2021 included advising domestic and international clients such as: NatWest on the wind down of Ulster Bank, which included the landmark announcement of the sale of Ulster Bank's commercial loan book to AIB for €4.2bn; Pilgrim's Pride Corporation on its pending $952m acquisition of Kerry Group's meats and meal business; CVC Capital Partners on the long-term strategic partnership with Six Nations Rugby; AIB on its proposed acquisition of Goodbody Stockbrokers; ICON plc on its acquisition of PRA Health Sciences; and UDG Healthcare plc on the £2.6bn recommended offer by Clayton Dubilier & Rice.

Mergermarket (an Acuris company) is an independent mergers and acquisitions intelligence service with a global library of historical M&A transactions. Read Mergermarket’s Global & Regional M&A Report for H1 2021 here. 

Date published: 5 July 2021