Telecom M&A falls 53% YoY in H1 2022
Europe, the Middle East, and Africa hold 60% of the total transaction value.
Mergers and acquisition (M&A) amongst telecom companies slowed in the first half of 2022 and posted a 53% year-on-year decline, with deal values reaching $41b, down from $88b in the same period in last year, according to Bain & Company.
In a report, Bain said Europe, the Middle East, and Africa accounted for 60% of the transaction value during the period at $25b.
It is followed by the Asia-Pacific at around 25% with $11b, and the Americas at $6b.
In-country scale deals slowed the most during the period, plunging by 58% YoY but still accounted for almost 45% of total value deals at around $18b, followed by infrastructure deals which held around 30% of the value at $13b.
Full asset divestments dipped 7% YoY to $7b, whilst geographic expansion reached $0.6b.
“Those numbers come with an important caveat, as the first half of 2022 saw a larger number of transactions without disclosed deal values compared with a year ago, particularly in infrastructure, which likely makes the year-over-year decline look larger than it was,” the report noted.
From 2016 to the first half of 2022, in-country deals accounted for more than half of the total deal value “mainly because of growth in infrastructure deals and full asset divestments.
Bain cited Orange and MásMóvil, an in-country scale transaction, as the largest announced during the first half. The companies were discussing merging their Spanish businesses for the expansion of their 5G networks and fibre-to-the-home businesses.
