European Power & Renewables Deals: Quarterly M&A outlook, Autumn 2012

Autumn 2012

As we forecasted in the last edition of our quarterly deal series, deals for gas transportation assets in Europe are proving a major source of M&A flow. As we move into the fourth quarter of the year and look ahead to 2013, we see the potential for an unprecedented flow of deals for onshore wind generation assets. Late summer and autumn 2012 has seen a rush of announcements of asset sale intentions. A potential total sales value of US$4-5bn from onshore windpower assets alone is now on the deal table.

Buyers and sellers were more focused on preparing rather than executing larger deals as a summer lull dampened European power and renewables big deal flow. After a Q2 upturn fuelled by three multibillion dollar deals, total European deal value fell sharply in Q3. A fall in value was also evident globally. But the value downturn was not uniformly reflected in deal volume. While deal numbers fell by 25% for power and renewables targets outside Europe, deal volume inside Europe increased by 28%.