Number of Mergers Drops but Dollar Amount Doesn’t

The global merger boom that started in the early 1980s slowed during the first three quarters of 1989 as the buyout industry apparently was finishing its digestion of gains made in the last year, according to a survey released Monday.

The survey by IDD Information Services also found that although the number of corporate mergers and acquisitions in the United States and overseas for the first three periods in 1989 was down from the previous year, the dollar amount was barely changed.

So far this year, IDD said, 3,666 companies were acquired for $248.5 billion. That was down 12% from 4,171 targets valued at $248.8 billion acquired in the same period last year.

The total for the first nine months of 1989 included the huge $25-billion leveraged buyout of RJR Nabisco.

IDD said acquisitions in the United States in the third quarter were down 13.8% from the previous quarter. There were 621 U.S. targets acquired in the third quarter, down from 721 in the prior three months.

According to the survey, Wasserstein Perella & Co. was the choice investment bank for the first three quarters by advising on 34 transactions collectively valued at $70.4 billion, including the RJR Nabisco deal. The firm was ranked ninth in 1988.

Shearson Lehman Hutton had the highest number of deals, 106, worth $20.8 billion.

RANKING THE MERGER ADVISERS

Rankings based on acquisitons from Jan. 1, 1989, to Sept. 30, 1989.

Amount Number Rank Financial Adviser ($ billions) of deals 1 Wasserstein Perella 70.4 34 2 Morgan Stanley 69.6 77 3 First Boston 50.7 91 4 Drexel Burnham Lambert 50.5 88 5 Lazard Freres 47.9 31 6 Merrill Lynch Capital Markets 44.4 67 7 Dillon, Read 38.1 33 8 Goldman, Sachs 30.1 63 9 Kleinwort, Benson 22.4 39 10 S.G. Warburg 22.0 45 11 Shearson Lehman Hutton 20.8 106 12 Salomon Bros. 16.3 45 13 Wertheim/Schroder Group 15.2 58 14 Lazard Bros. 14.8 54 15 J.P. Morgan Securities 14.0 8

Source: IDD Information Services