After years of strong growth, there have been just 91 transactions worth £234 million involving a Northern Ireland company so far this year, the latest Experian M&A Review notes.

This represents a 56 per cent decline in the number of deals over the same period in 2019 and a 36 per cent decline in total recorded value.

Carson McDowell was Northern Ireland’s busiest adviser by deal volume over the first nine months of the year with a role in 25 qualifying transactions, closely followed by Tughans with 24 deals.

They were followed by Mills Selig with 11; A&L Goodbody with 10; Davidson McDonnell Solicitors with six; Millar McCall Wylie with six; Arthur Cox with four; Cleaver Fulton Rankin with three; Pinsent Masons with three; Norton Rose Fulbright with two; Shoosmiths with two; and Paris Smith with two.

Mills Selig, Carey Olsen, Freeths, Latham & Watkins and Vincent & Beatty each bagged a role on the year’s largest deal to jointly top the value table at £135 million.

They were followed by DAC Beachcroft with £21 million; A&L Goodbody with £16m; Tughans with £10m; Davidson McDonnell Solicitors with £6m; and DLA Piper with £3m.

Jane Turner, research manager, Experian MarketIQ, said: “The Covid-19 crisis continues to have an acute impact on the UK’s M&A market and our latest figures suggest that we’re some way off a return to normality, although a small uptick in volume and a rush of high-value deals in Q3 raise hopes that the direction of travel is positive at least.

“It looks as if the speed of recovery will vary widely between sectors, with technology, media and telecoms deals leading the way. While market volatility and the challenges in accurately assessing company valuations have led many businesses to postpone their investment decisions, others are eyeing opportunities for consolidation or for the acquisition of distressed assets – a trend we expect to see grow as we move further into Q4 and beyond.

“Elsewhere, the private equity sector remains highly active and we’re still seeing fundraising and refinancing transactions in large numbers - again, this is likely to be a key part of deal activity in the short to medium term.”