Three large transactions helped Europe's media and telecom M&A value in April to jump year over year to $3.09 billion from $1.06 billion, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. The deals also found a place among the top 10 M&A transactions so far in the sector year-to-date.
The total number of deals announced in April, however, fell 20% year over year to 80.
Saudi Arabian telecom infrastructure company TAWAL's agreement with the Netherlands' United Group BV to acquire mobile tower infrastructure units in Bulgaria, Croatia and Slovenia for about $1.34 billion emerged as the top deal announced during the month under review and the third-largest year-to-date.
Following the completion of the transaction, TAWAL will own and operate over 4,800 sites across the three European countries and its operations in the European market will be rebranded as TAWAL Europe. The deal is expected to close in the second half of the year, subject to customary conditions.
Danish energy company Norlys a.m.b.a.'s bid to acquire operations and network assets of Telia Co. AB in Denmark was the second-largest transaction. The $924.2 million deal is expected to close in the first quarter of 2024, subject to the parties signing final and binding agreements and approval from Norlys’ owners. Telia plans to use the proceeds from the transaction for deleveraging purposes.
– Check out the biggest M&A deals in Europe's media and telecom sector in March.
– Use our Transactions Statistics page to run a custom screen of M&A by industry or geography.
Meanwhile, the third-biggest M&A deal involved Sega Europe Ltd.'s offer to acquire Finnish mobile game developer and publisher Rovio Entertainment Oyj for $782.2 million.
Rovio agreed to Sega's takeover bid. Rovio was earlier in talks with Israel's Playtika Holding Corp. over a potential takeover, but talks ended in March without a deal, according to an April 17 Dow Jones Newswires report.
The integrated telecommunication services subsector contributed three deals in April. An equal number of deals came from the interactive home entertainment subsector.