North America’s aerospace & defence industry sees a rise of 35.3% in deal activity in Q4 2018

North America’s aerospace & defence industry saw a rise of 35.3% in overall deal activity during Q4 2018, when compared to the four-quarter average, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

A total of 46 deals worth $23.69bn were announced for the region during Q4 2018, against the four-quarter average of 34 deals.

Of all the deal types, M&A saw most activity in Q4 2018 with 22, representing a 47.8% share for the region.

In second place was venture financing with 17 deals, followed by private equity deals with seven transactions, respectively capturing a 37% and 15.2% share of the overall deal activity for the quarter.

In terms of value of deals, M&A was the leading category in North America’s aerospace & defence industry with $22.92bn, while private equity and venture financing deals totalled $500m and $264.24m, respectively.

North America aerospace & defence industry deals in Q4 2018: Top deals

The top five aerospace & defence deals accounted for 96.4% of the overall value during Q4 2018.

The combined value of the top five aerospace & defence deals stood at $22.83bn, against the overall value of $23.69bn recorded for the quarter. The top announced aerospace & defence deal tracked by GlobalData in Q4 2018 was the $17.82bn merger of Harris and L3 Technologies.

In second place was the $4.14bn acquisition of Esterline Technologies by TransDigm Group and in third place was Baillie Gifford & Co’s $500m private equity deal with Space Exploration Technologies.

The $228m asset transaction with Bombardier by Longview Aviation Capital and Accident Compensation, Bessemer Venture Partners, DCVC Management Co, Future Fund, Greenspring Associates, K1W1, Khosla Ventures and Promus Ventures’ venture financing of Rocket Lab USA for $140m held fourth and fifth positions, respectively.

This analysis considers only announced and completed deals from the GlobalData financial deals database and excludes all terminated and rumoured deals. Country and industry are defined according to the headquarters and dominant industry of the target firm. The term ‘acquisition’ refers to both completed deals and those in the bidding stage.

GlobalData tracks real-time data concerning all merger and acquisition, private equity/venture capital and asset transaction activity around the world from thousands of company websites and other reliable sources.

More in-depth reports and analysis on all reported deals are available for subscribers to GlobalData’s deals database.