Fintech M&A: More Deals, Less Value
Over the past two years, the transaction volume in the financial technology and information technology sectors remained relatively flat. The value of those deals, however, has shrunk significantly.
According to the investment bank Berkery Noyes, there were 870 financial technology and information industry M&A transactions from the beginning of 2015 through to the end of 2016. The banks suggests that for those deals, “the median revenue multiple decreased from 3.2x to 2.3x, while the median EBITDA improved from 11.4x to 13.1x” on an annual basis.
The payments segment, for example, saw 18% rise in the volume of deals in 2016, which followed a 22% decline in 2015. From the report: “In terms of value, three of the industry’s top ten largest deals during 2016 occurred in the segment. Along these lines were TSYS’ acquisition of TransFirst, a provider of secure transaction processing services and payment enabling technologies, which was acquired from Vista Equity Partners for $2.33 billion.”
Acquisition activity in the banking segment decreased 13% in 2016, down to 78 deals, after experiencing a 45% hike in 2014, according to the report.
The full report is available here.
