Publications

The weight of the auto industry continues to have an adverse effect on the metals sector.

Commodity price volatility not only threatens the survival of individual companies, but also puts entire markets and industries at risk.

After forging ahead in previous years, metals industry deal-making fell away sharply in 2008 as world demand fell and prices plummeted. The paper examines the rationale behind overall deal trends and looks at key individual deals. We analyse the year under review in the context of the preceding three years, and look ahead to the future direction of deal-making in the sector.

The fourth quarter of 2008 exhibited a continued deterioration for metals companies, as demonstrated by the precipitous decline in commodity prices through the end of the year. At year-end, only 55 percent of deals announced in 2008 were completed, with 51 deals pending and nine more deals withdrawn. Seven deals that were previously announced were withdrawn in the fourth quarter, marking the most withdrawals in any quarter over the past two years.

Welcome to the third quarter 2008 edition of Forging ahead, our analysis of mergers and acquisitions in the metals industry. As we know, we are currently experiencing a severe global financial and credit crisis. The current global economic slowdown and lack of liquidity have resulted in a sell-off and significant decline in market capitalization across the industry.

Welcome to the second quarter of 2008 edition of our Forging ahead analysis of mergers and acquisition activity in the metals industry. The pace of deal activity, as measured by the number of transactions announced for metals targets, increased this quarter. The pace for the quarter also exceeded the same period in 2006 and was about in-line with the same period in 2007.

PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Tax Benchmarking Surveys for the Metal industries give insight to tax departments as they review their tax strategies. Additionally, they provide information on where they stand compared with their peer group, and allows them to compare the drivers of their effective tax rate with those of other companies.

The first quarter of 2008 edition of our Forging ahead: Analysis of mergers and acquisition activity in the metals industry. Deal activity remained high with 31 deals announced during the quarter, a slight deceleration of the pace set in 2007, but active nonetheless. Unlike 2007, however, large deals were noticeably absent, resulting in a lower average deal value than during 2007 or 2006.

The fourth edition of Forging ahead: Mergers and acquisitions in the global metals industry in 2007. Our report shows that deal-making in the industry has soared to unprecedented levels, but the focus of interest has shifted from steel to aluminium and from Western Europe to North America.