Q3 2010 Finance Industry Trends

The most active acquirer through Q3 2010 was Morningstar, Inc., with four acquisitions: Seeds Finance SA, Old Broad Street Research, Aegis Equities Research, and Realpoint, LLC.
The largest transaction for Q3 2010 was the purchase of RBS WorldPay, Inc. by Bain Capital and Advent International Corporation for $1.7 billion.

Total transaction volume in Q3 2010 decreased by 16 percent from Q2 2010, from 63 to 53 transactions.
Total transaction value in Q3 2010 decreased by 47 percent over Q2 2010, from $9.1 billion to $4.8 billion. This sharp decline is affected by the number of large transactions in Q2, with 4 of the top 10 largest deals occuring within Q2.
Despite these quarterly downturns, 2010 has already surpased the full year of 2009 in value, $16 to $18 billion, and has nearly done so in volume, 181 to 175 transactions.

Median multiples have shown marked growth from 2009 to the first nine months of 2010. Median EBITDA multiples rose from 8.4 to 16.4, a 95 percent increase, while median revenue multiples rose from 1.6 to 2.6, a 63 percent increase.
The acquisition of DataCash Group plc by MasterCard Inc. represents a revenue multiple of 8.2 and EBITDA multiple of 17.9.

The top ten deals by value have shifted only slightly since our half year report, with two acquisitions entering the list from Q3 2010: MasterCard Incorporated’s acquisition of DataCash Group plc for $516 million and Bain Capital and Advent International Corporation’s purchase of RBS WorldPay, Inc. for $1.7 billion.
These two acquisitions represent 57% of the total value of all Q3 2010 transactions, $2.2 billion of $3.85 billion value of deals.