Failed M&A deals hit 8-year high in 2016

Singapore

FAILED mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals worldwide have increased in each of the last three years, with the deal failure rate reaching an eight-year high in 2016.

Last year's deal failure rate was also higher than in any year since 2008, the start of the global financial crisis.

Analysing such deal failure rates, and also the factors possibly determining such failures, is new research "Abandoned Acquisitions", published on Thursday by global provider of M&A deal management solutions Intralinks and University of London's Cass Business School.

It found that, in 2016, 7.2 per cent of M&A deals announced worldwide failed to complete; other than being the highest rate of worldwide deal failures since the start of the …