While first-half M&A activity, by value, slipped in the UK from a year ago, latest quarterly data shows a surge, with pharma and similar firms dominating such liquidity events.

Merger and acquisition activity – often big liquidity events that wealth managers monitor – stood at £37.5 billion ($62.9 billion) in the first half of this year, down 12.5 per cent from a year earlier and the lowest half-year value since the first half of 2010, according to Mergermarket. Quarterly figures, however, showed a diametrically opposite surge higher.

The first half of this year witnessed US pharmaceutical firm giant Pfizer’s failed – and politically controversial – bid to buy UK-headquartered AstraZeneca in a £69 billion deal. While US firms have been trying to spend their cash piles on such foreign deals and sometimes move their tax domiciles to avoid high US corporation tax (see here), that particular deal met with political opposition in the UK. The relatively high level of sterling may have proven a factor.

The report noted that only one “mega-deal” (valued above $5 billion) has been announced in the region so far this year – the £8.6 billion acquisition of the Oncology division of GlaxoSmithKline by its German peer Novartis.

“The lack of large transactions in the country pulled the UK M&A value down this semester,” the organisation said.

However, the second quarter of 2014 witnessed a stark improvement compared to the previous quarter, surging 156.5 per cent to £27 billion, the highest quarterly value in the country since Q2 2012.

The pharma, medical and biotech sector, driven by the Novartis/ GlaxoSmithKline deal, was the most active industry with a 26.9 per cent market share (£10.1 billion), and is in line with these businesses leading global M&A with a 16.5 per cent market share. That share would have been even larger had Pfizer’s bid for AstraZeneca been successful.