Mergers and acquisitions with direct pension fund involvement declined for a second straight quarter in the first three months of 2024, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

Transaction value totaled $1.26 billion, a 91.7% fall from $15.27 billion in the first quarter of 2023. The number of deals went down to 27 from 31 year over year.

On an annual basis, deal volume and value in 2023 show a two-year decline.

– Download a spreadsheet with data in this story. – Read about the fourth-quarter 2023 Data Dispatch on pension fund-backed M&A deals. – Explore more private equity coverage.

Top transactions

Private equity and venture capital firms were co-investors in eight out of the 10 biggest announced transactions that involved pension funds during the quarter.

The biggest M&A deal with direct pension fund involvement was South Yorkshire Pensions Authority and Royal London Asset Management Ltd.'s acquisition of 21,000 acres of prime farmland in Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire, UK, for £260 million.

In the second-biggest transaction announced during the quarter, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Longbow Capital Inc. and other strategic equity investors made a $210 million follow-on equity investment in energy management and generation company VoltaGrid LLC. The investment closed in the third quarter of 2023.

Canadian pension funds have been involved in four of the top 10 deals in the first quarter of 2024.

Technology investment collapses

Pension funds invested the most capital in the energy and utility sector in the first quarter, providing $313.1 million, higher than the $268.6 million in the first quarter of 2023. The industrial sector came second with $211.4 million.

Pension fund-backed M&A deals in the technology, media and telecom sector plunged to just $7.6 million from $12.84 billion in the same quarter in 2023.