Canadian upstream M&A hits $11.2 billion in 2018

In another year where North American deals dominated upstream M&A activity, Evaluate Energy’s latest Global M&A review shows that Canada saw US$11.2 billion in new deals announced in 2018. The full M&A review can be downloaded at this link.

This US$11.2 billion appears a major drop from the total value of deals in 2017 (US$32.0 billion) – this value, however, was skewed by a handful of major oilsands sector deals in the first quarter worth a combined US$24.3 billion.

Source: Evaluate Energy M&A Database

2018 almost had a major oilsands deal of its own – that is, before Husky Energy’s attempted US$4.9 billion takeover of MEG Energy was terminated last week. Husky decided that it would not extend the offer that expired Wednesday without receiving the necessary two-thirds support.

“Husky’s share price rose immediately after this announcement by 13%, which arguably shows that Husky’s shareholders were not enamoured with a deal taking place in the current pricing environment,” said Eoin Coyne, Evaluate Energy’s senior M&A analyst and author of the Evaluate Energy 2018 review.

“At C$11 per share and US$4.9 billion, the deal would have been the fourth largest in the Canadian oilsands sector since the start of 2014, but it seems now that we’ll have to wait and see if any further big-money consolidation will take place in the Canadian oilsands patch after the raft of activity early last year.”

Evaluate Energy’s M&A review of upstream deals in 2018 is available at this link. The report includes details on global deal-making trends, the largest upstream deals of the year in Canada and around the world, as well as an in-depth look at a huge year for deals in the United States.