Nov M&A slumps in United States

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The value of announced U.S. mergers and acquisitions fell 71 percent in November to $58.1 billion when compared to the same month last year, according to research firm Dealogic.
In November of 2006, M&A had reached $200 billion.
As lending markets remained tight and investment banks absorbed the fallout from mortgage losses, the M&A slowdown in the United States that started in August showed few signs of reversing course this month.
Dealogic said the second-half slump in U.S. mergers has reduced the year-on-year increase in U.S. deal volume to 7 percent, with $1.5 trillion of announced transactions compared to $1.4 trillion at this stage of 2006.
Abu Dhabi Investment Authority's $7.5 billion deal for a stake of up to 4.9 percent in Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) was the largest announced U.S. deal in November, Dealogic said.
Of the 10 largest U.S. deals announced this month, five involved foreign buyers and for 2007 year to date, 21 percent of all U.S. deals were announced by non-U.S. buyers, led by Britain with $45.7 billion of transactions and Canada with $39.5 billion.
STILL A RECORD YEAR
Leveraged buyouts involving private equity firms, which had helped take M&A to record levels, declined dramatically in size and volume in November.
"Private equity buyers continue to fade from view with just $25.8 billion announced financial sponsor buyouts globally and a mere $2.3 billion for U.S. targets - the lowest monthly volume since March 2002," said Dealogic in a report.
Globally, the average value of private equity deals has gone down from $1 billion at its peak in May to $325 million in November. In the United States, the average private equity deal was $2.6 billion in May and $127 million in November.
Thanks to the mergers boom in the first half of the year, global M&A for 2007 has reached a record $4.5 trillion year to date, up 28 percent on this stage of 2006.
Dealogic said Goldman Sachs (GS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) leads the 2007 global M&A advisory rankings with $1.3 trillion of announced deals, with Morgan Stanley (MS.N: Quote, Profile, Research) close behind with $1.2 trillion and JP Morgan (JPM.N: Quote, Profile, Research) third with $1 trillion.
The advisory rankings in the United States mirror the global top two, but Citigroup (C.N: Quote, Profile, Research) is currently in third place.
Dealogic said this is the first time that Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan and Citigroup have gone over the $1 trillion mark in the M&A league table.
(Reporting by Mark McSherry; Editing by Gary Hill)