From Appleby, Article by Cameron Adderley and Frances Woo

Please find attached our Offshore-i report on transactions for the first quarter of 2013. Offshore-i provides data and insight about the mergers and acquisition activity going on in the major offshore jurisdictions around the globe, where we do the majority of our business.

The key themes emerging from the report show that in the first quarter of 2013:

There were 448 deals involving offshore targets completed with an aggregate value of USD28bn, representing a 28% drop in volumes and a 73% drop in values against the previous quarter.

The average offshore deal size was USD62m for Q1 2013, which is lower than we have come to expect based on 2012 figures, but is consistent with the average deal size across 2010 and 2011, which stood at USD66m across those eight quarters.

The start of 2013 saw just two deals announced offshore in excess of USD1bn; this compares to 10 such deals in Q4 2012.

While financial services dominated in terms of deal volumes, accounting for 135 of the 448 deals done in Q1, the sector is not the frontrunner in terms of value. That is manufacturing which, with 70 deals, accounted for 16% of the deals done in the first quarter of 2013, and 26% of the USD27.9bn spent.

The vast majority of deals that took place offshore in the first quarter were minority stake transactions, comprising 274 of the 448 deals completed, or 61% of the total. The market for initial public offerings offshore remains steady. Eight IPOs were announced in the quarter under review, as against 14 in preceding three months.

Cayman-incorporated targets were the most popular in our region in this quarter, accounting for 102 of the 448 transactions.

There were 352 deals involving offshore acquirers in Q1 2013, as against 505 in the quarter before, and the aggregate value of those has dropped from USD73.6bn to USD25.2bn.

Deal volume and value just about everywhere has shrunk in the first quarter of 2013 as against the last quarter of 2012, and the offshore region is no exception. Compared to a year ago, offshore deal volumes are down 10%, but this compares positively against a global average drop of 20%.

Please go to: http://www.applebyglobal.com/e-marketing/offshore-i-1st-quarter-april-2013-%28summary%29.pdf to read a summary version of the report.

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