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| Pentair & Tyco Flow | |
| Size | $4.9 billion all-stock Reverse Morris Trust merger |
| Date | September 2012 |
| Financial advisers | Goldman Sachs (Tyco), Deutsche Bank (Pentair) |
| return to the Global Deals of the Year index | |
Although so often in the past a harbinger of increased M&A dealmaking activity, rising equity markets failed to ignite the revival that advisory bankers had been hoping for last year.
Kept in check by the eurozone crisis, insipid global economic growth and an array of other macro-political events and risks that combined to create uncertainty, company chief executives instead opted to focus on fortifying their balance sheets and returning capital to shareholders.
As a result, worldwide M&A volumes last year fell 5.2% on 2011 to $2.06 trillion, according to Mergermarket.
But if most company chief executives erred on the side of caution, believing it was safer to sit tight and keep their powder dry amid uncertain times, others were boldly pressing ahead with dealmaking, pursuing M&A opportunities that in some cases proved to be transformational.