Australia’s metals & mining sees a drop of 26.76% in deal activity in Q1 2021

Led by $46.09m acquisition of Paterson Copper, Australia’s metals & mining industry saw a drop of 26.76% in overall deal activity during Q1 2021, when compared with the last four-quarter average, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

A total of 65 deals worth $183.92m were announced in Q1 2021, compared with the last four-quarter average of 88.75 deals.

M&A was the leading category in the quarter with 62 deals which accounted for 95.4% of all deals.

In second place was private equity with two deals, followed by venture financing with one transactions, respectively accounting for 3.1% and 1.5% of overall deal activity in the Australia’s metals & mining industry during the quarter.

In terms of value of deals, M&A was the leading deal category in Australia’s metals & mining industry with total deals worth $160.05m, while private equity and venture financing deals totalled $23.28m and $0.59m, respectively.

Australia metals & mining industry deals in Q1 2021: Top deals

The top five metals & mining industry deals accounted for 59.9% of the overall value during Q1 2021.

The combined value of the top five metals & mining deals stood at $110.25m, against the overall value of $183.92m recorded for the quarter.

The top five metals & mining industry deals of Q1 2021 tracked by GlobalData were:

1) Cyprium Metals’ $46.09m acquisition of Paterson Copper

2) The $23.28m private equity deal with Newcrest Mining by Allan Gray Australia and Orbis Investment Management

3) Northern Star (Carosue Dam)’s $13.94m asset transaction with Shannon Resources

4) The $13.63m acquisition deal with Big River Gold by Dundee

5) Red Emperor Resources’ asset transaction with Great Northern Palladium for $13.31m.