Merger Boom Isn’t Expected To Let Up Soon Even Bigger Deals Are Looming In Utilities, Telecommunications

The biggest wave of mergers and acquisitions in corporate history won’t let up anytime soon, a Credit Suisse First Boston mergers specialist said.

Last year, $1.15 trillion in mergers and acquisitions were announced worldwide, more than in any other year, said Anne Lutz, director for business development in the mergers and acquisitions department of Credit Suisse First Boston.

‘It’s not that there’s more deals. There’s bigger deals,” Lutz said in a speech to a conference for chief financial officers sponsored by Forbes magazine.

Lutz said telecommunications and electric utilities, two industries that saw a boom in mergers and acquisitions in the past year-and-a-half, are getting started on what could be another series of big mergers to take place this year.

Natural resource companies, including oil, gas and mining, are just beginning to consolidate, she said in an interview during the conference: “All the big oil and gas companies are going to be doing deals, both in the United States and globally.”

“Banking also has a lot more room to go,” she said. The only industry that has finished its consolidation, for the most part, is the defense industry, she said.

Last year alone, there were eight mergers valued at more than $10 billion, led by Bell Atlantic Corp.’s proposed $21.9 billion purchase of Nynex Corp.

Many U.S. companies are looking abroad for acquisitions, mostly to Europe. Some 56 percent of U.S. cross-border acquisitions last year were with European companies.

“In Latin America, also, there is a lot of opportunity,” she said. “Opportunities in Asia, however, are limited as a result of ownership structures.”