Financial data provider Refinitiv says the value of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) involving Sub-Saharan African entities reached $78.3bn in the first nine months of 2021, the highest first nine-month total since it began tracking the data in 1980.
Refinitiv’s Sub-Saharan African Investment Banking Review, released on Tuesday, showed that M&A activity in the region during for the first nine months of 2021 was more than four-times the value recorded in the same period in 2020 thanks largely to the $44.1bn Naspers-Prosus share swap transaction that occurred in May. The number of M&A deals also increased 4% to a three-year high of 584.
The record deal flow helped Sub-Saharan Africa-focused investment bankers earn $387.5m in fees during the first nine months of 2021, a 15% increase from the previous year. SA was by far the dominant fee-paying country, accounting for 58% of the investment banking fees paid in the region in 2021 with Nigeria and Mauritius each accounting for 8%.
Yet despite SA’s dominance of the fee landscape, the banking groups that reaped most of this money had a decidedly foreign bent. Standard Chartered and Goldman Sachs topped the tables with each bank accounting for 8.5% of the total investment banking fees earned during the first nine months of 2021 with BofA Securities, previously Bank of America Merrill Lynch, coming in third.
Standard Bank and FirstRand were the only SA contenders to feature in the top 10 investment banking fee earners with the remaining places taken up by Citigroup, JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley, Barclays and BNP Paribas.
Sub-Saharan African debt issuance also rose to a record $37.2bn in the first nine months of 2021, up 149% from the value recorded during the same period in 2020.
theunisseng@businesslive.co.za
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