Buyer's market

Deal making recovered in 2017 and will continue to pick up in 2018 as investors look for new growth opportunities

Oil and gas mergers and acquisitions (M&A) had a strong 2017 and the momentum is set to carry into 2018. After spending much of the downturn optimising their portfolios, though, companies are now starting to shift their deal making to propel growth. This is supported by the latest EY Capital Confidence Barometer (CCB), which found that oil and gas companies have the highest acquisition appetite among all sectors surveyed, with 69% planning to acquire within the next 12 months. The Opec supply-cut deal in November 2016 helped stabilise the M&A market by fostering a consensus about where the market was heading. The value of oil and gas deals through 2017 was almost 60% higher than in 2