That’s not to say big deals didn’t hit the headlines, with the crown going to Saint-Gobain’s $4.3 billion bid for building materials giant CSR. Speak to any banker and they’ll say activity is picking up compared to last year, with deals like Seven Group’s bid to buy Boral, Cyan Renewables run at MMA Offshore and Metcash’s $600 million bet on Superior Food Services. However, deal values and the number of deals were down. It just takes one blockbuster deal to distort the numbers, and in this quarter, there wasn’t one. |