Leaks, grommets and widgets

There is a fun piece in The Times today from Martin Waller about leaks on M&A deals. Yes, you read it correctly - leaks!

Waller's intro made me giggle, so here is the link if you missed the tale from the old hack:

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/tracking-down-the-source-of-m-a-leaks-rjgtpmkrr

Waller's piece is based on some researh from Intralinks and the Cass Business school, who conclude that leaking information on mergers and acquisitions before a public announcement adds an extra $21 million to the average price at which that company is taken out.

So, you would have thought the London market would be rife with leaks about takeover bids for British companies. Well, apparently not. According to the research, the UK is one of the least leaky markets out of the world's advanced economies.

I have pasted the rest of the research below in case your wondering which countries saw the most deal leaks...

Press Release | Intralinks®

Leaking Information on M&A Deals Boosts Deal Values by An Average US$21m

Thursday, June 22, 2017

• Difference between median target takeover premium for leaked deals vs. non-leaked deals was US$21 million in 2016
• 8.6% of worldwide deals leaked in 2016, the same as in 2015 and above a 6-year low of 6% in 2014
• Asia Pacific region records highest rate of leaked deals in 2016 at 9.7%, deal leaks also rose year-on-year in Europe but fell in North America
• Worldwide Consumer sector deal leaks jump by 7.8 percentage points to 15.5% in 2016 - the highest of any sector for eight years

London, UK – 22 June, 2017: Leaking information on mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals before any public announcement of the transaction added an extra US$21m to the average value of deals announced in 2016 that leaked, according to new research from Intralinks, a business of Synchronoss Technologies, Inc. (NASDAQ: SNCR), and Cass Business School, City, University of London.

In addition to evidence of higher valuations for M&A deals that leak, the 2017 Intralinks Annual M&A Leaks Report, published today, found that 8.6% of worldwide M&A deals were leaked in 2016. This figure is unchanged from the previous year (2015) and above a six-year low of 6% in 2014. In 2014, worldwide deal leaks had been on a declining trend for the previous six years, but this trend reversed in 2015 and 2016 – despite the efforts of financial regulators globally in recent years to bring in new regulations to curb deal leaks, and increase enforcement actions and fines for market abuse and insider trading...