A Challenging Year For African M&A

"Turbulent" is the usual adjective to be tastefully employed when assessing years such as 2022 that are subject to extreme events such as the Russian-Ukraine conflict and its reverberations on global energy supplies (along with other terrible consequences).

Against that backdrop, activity within the global upstream M&A space has been modest, with deal volumes and values down against 2021 and the five-year average.

This, in large part, is due to the headwind of high prices, which suppress deal activity because buyers typically do not wish to pay "top of market" prices. Meanwhile, current owners have little incentive to sell when assets are contributing healthy cash returns.

Despite this challenge, global upstream deal activity has been on the rise in the latter part of the year, driven primarily by divestments from the majors across a wide number of jurisdictions, and increased M&A in the US.