Latin America M&A Record

Latin America M&A activities shot up 54% in Brazil by September 2021 to a

Latin America M&A activities shot up 54% in Brazil by September 2021. The Brazilian transactional market recorded a total of 1,716 transactions and moved $68.5 billion through the third quarter of 2021, according to the monthly TTR – Transactional Track Record. The third quarter stood out from the rest and recorded 699 transactions of mergers and acquisitions.

The technology sector remains the most active for the year, with a total of 640 transactions, representing an 83% increase over the same period in 2020. In second place is the Finance and Insurance sectors, with 318 transactions.

After raising $25 billion in equity offerings this year and almost $30 billion last year, Latin American companies have strong cash positions to finance M&A.

The largest deal of the region so far is the proposed $9.5 billion takeover of NotreDame Intermedica (GNDI3.SA) by rival Hapvida SA (HAPV3.SA), still under analysis of Brazilian antitrust watchdog CADE.

Other top deals included Univision’s acquisition of Grupo Televisa’s assets and the spin off of Brazilian retailer GPA SA’s (PCAR3.SA) wholesale division Asai (ASAI3.SA), with values close to $5 billion each.

Among the most active industries are healthcare, still very fragmented in the region, and fintechs, attracting a lot of investor interest as they grab a piece of a market long dominated by brick and mortar banks.

Venture Capital charges ahead and stood out with 510 transactions completed, which represents an increase of 63% in relation to the same period in 2020.

US global #lawfirms acted in most of those transactions notice given to Morrison & Foerster LLP (NY), Foley & Lardner LLP (Silicon Valley), Gunderson Dettmer (NY), Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati (Palo Alto), Clifford Chance and White & Case LLP (N.Y).

Mattos Filho, Veiga Filho, Marrey Jr. e Quiroga Advogados, Pinheiro Neto Advogados, Machado, Meyer, Sendacz e Opice Advogados, Lefosse Advogados, Pinheiro Guimarães Advogados, Souza, Mello e Torres, and the newcomer and highly M&A Venture capital specialists Bronstein, Zilberberg, Chueiri & Potenza Advogados were the most active Brazilian law firms counseling those deals in the quarter.