Elon Musk's planned $40.69 billion acquisition of Twitter was one of four global M&A transactions worth more than $10 billion announced in April, the busiest month of 2022 so far for large deals.
The biggest global M&A deal of the month by transaction value, including roughly $43 billion in assumed debt, was Edizione S.r.l.'s $56.8 billion acquisition of the Rome-based highway and infrastructure operator Atlantia SpA, announced on the same day as the Musk-Twitter deal. The Atlantia transaction stands as the second-largest announced deal of 2022, behind only Microsoft Corp.'s planned $68.7 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc, announced in January, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.
The other two $10 billion-plus deal announcements in April came on consecutive days: Blackstone Real Estate Income Trust Inc.'s $13.17 billion acquisition of U.S. student housing real estate investment trust American Campus Communities Inc., announced April 19, and KKR & Co. Inc.'s acquisition of the Sydney, Australia-based hospital owner Ramsay Health Care Ltd., announced a day later.
The four deals brought total global transaction value on deals valued at $10 billion or more to $303.62 billion for 2022 across 13 transactions, according to Market Intelligence data.
Big deals maintain pace
The four $10 billion-plus deals announced in April put the second quarter on pace for the most such deals since the third quarter of 2021, which had 13. The fourth quarter of 2021 and first quarter of 2022 saw just nine deals apiece.
The combined transaction value of the four deals in April, $132.04 billion, is already approaching the combined transaction value from the entire first quarter of 2022 of $171.58 billion.
Goldman, J.P. Morgan continue to land big deals
Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC and J.P. Morgan Securities LLC were among six financial advisers representing Edizione on its acquisition of Atlantia, which stands as the largest industrials sector deal and the largest European M&A deal of 2022.
Goldman and J.P. Morgan, along with BofA Securities Inc., Morgan Stanley, Barclays Capital Inc. and Allen & Co. LLC, were financial advisers on Musk's acquisition of Twitter, the second-largest technology, media and telecommunications sector deal of 2022 behind the Microsoft-Activision deal.
Goldman Sachs has now advised on eight of the thirteen $10 billion-plus announced deals in 2022, the most of any investment bank.
