M&A activity sinks to near-2008 levels

摘要

So far in 2011, all has been quiet on the mergers and acquisitions front-so quiet, in fact, that it almost resembles the last economic downturn.The first six months of 2011 saw $7.4 billion in mergers and acquisitions in the Canadian oil and gas industry, compared to $19.5 billion during the same period last year. In the first six months of 2008, during the global economic crisis, mergers and acquisitions activity in the oilpatch tallied $6.8 billion.So what is the reason behind the lower numbers this year? Writing in the Daily Oil Bulletin, Ryan Ferguson Young, an associate at Sayers Energy Advisors, points to the shrinking number of large transactions.