Canadian M&A activity hits highest since financial crisis in Jan-Sept

By John Tilak

TORONTO, Oct (Shenzhen: 000069.SZ - news) 6 (Reuters) - Canadian merger and acquisition activity in the first nine months of the year touched their highest level since the financial crisis, buoyed by several big-ticket deals across a range of sectors, data from Thomson Reuters showed on Thursday.

M&A deal value jumped 17 percent to $209.7 billion in the period, up from $178.9 billion from a year ago, according to Thomson Reuters (Dusseldorf: TOC.DU - news) data. It was the best first nine months since 2007. Full-year figures will be available in January.

Morgan Stanley (Xetra: 885836 - news) , Barclays Plc (LSE: BARC.L - news) and Royal Bank of Canada were the top three advisers for Canadian M&A in the period, followed by Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS-PB - news) , JPMorgan (LSE: JPIU.L - news) and Bank of Montreal (Toronto: BMO.TO - news) . CIBC took the third position among Canadian banks.

The biggest deal of the year so far is Enbridge Inc (Toronto: ENB.TO - news) 's planned acquisition of Spectra Energy Corp (NYSE: SE - news) at about $28 billion (C$37 billion). A move by Canadian fertilizer producers Potash Corp of Saskatchewan Inc and Agrium (Dusseldorf: AGU.DU - news) Inc to combine in a merger of equals was another highlight.

"Investors in the market broadly are strongly endorsing these deals. People are very supportive of strategic M&A," said Derek Neldner, RBC (Other OTC: RBCI - news) 's head of Canadian investment banking, who noted that there were several transformational deals this year.

"Fundamentally we find M&A activity is driven by confidence - board of director and management confidence," he added.

RBC helped advise Potash Corp in its deal with Agrium (Toronto: AGU.TO - news) , and Enbridge in its deal with Spectra (Other OTC: SPKTF - news) .

After a lull in recent quarters, the traditional driver of Canadian deal activity - mining and resource M&A - has begun to pick up.

"We're starting to see a slow but steady rebound in the resource sectors, and that generally leads to more M&A and fundraising," said Bruce Rothney, chief executive of Barclays (Swiss: BARC.SW - news) Canada.

"There's some evidence of a turning point in mining and, to a degree, oil and gas."

Barclays advised Agrium and Spectra on their respective blockbuster deals.

Other highlights of the year include TransCanada (Dusseldorf: TRS.DU - news) 's $10.2 billion acquisition of Columbia Pipeline Group and Fortis (Dusseldorf: 12F.DU - news) Inc's proposed $11.3 billion purchase of ITC Holdings Corp, which is expected to close by the end of the year. (Reporting by John Tilak; Editing by Bernadette Baum)