What made 2015 a record year for M&A?

More interesting is who is doing the buying, and how quickly this dynamic is changing

Inbound M&A (defined as a foreign company acquiring an Irish company) has always been a reliable source of Irish merger activity

Last year was a record one for Irish mergers and acquisitions, with a total of 382 transactions announced and/or closed, more than doubling the 181 recorded in 2014, itself a strong year by any previous measure.

The drivers of this activity are manifold and well documented: low interest rates, an influx of foreign capital, the stabilisation of Irish banks and their subsequent appetite for lending into strategic transactions, and of course, newfound (or ...