In a short space of time we have seen major industrial mergers on a global scale and of a magnitude not seen since the start of the crisis. The last merger of the year was between Dow and DuPont, but the alliances between Pfizer and Allergen and between AB Inbev and Sab Miller are among the ten largest in history. Globalisation or the need to concentrate resources for research and development are a couple of the reasons why large companies decide to come together. We overview the unions and mergers that made an impression in 2015:
1. Dow and DuPont
The two chemical companies came together to form a giant of the sector that is only behind the German firm Basf in terms of business volume. The Dow and DuPont merger, with each valued at 60 billion dollars, has produced a company with a volume of sales over 90 billion dollars. Dow Chemical, founded in 1897, has annual sales of some 58 billion dollars and more than 53,000 workers, while DuPont, founded in 1802, has a turnover of more than 35 billion dollars and employs 64,000 people. Dow Chemical Ibèrica, Dow Chemical's Spanish subsidiary, employs some 1,500 and makes more than 250 products.
The multinational has three centres in Spain, located in Tarragona, Ribaforada and Tudela (Navarra), as well as a headquarters in Madrid and four R&D centres.
For its part, DuPont employes some 1,400 people in its centres on the Iberian Peninsula. The company has a significant presence in Asturias, where it produces fibres, pesticides and chemicals.
2. AB InBev buys SABMiller
The owner of Budweiser, Stella Artois and Corona took over its British competitor at the beginning of November for 100 billion euros. The resulting company now has a world market share of almost 30%.
The giant brewery is present on the five continents and produces a third of the beer on the planet. The acquisition is among the top five in history and is the largest takeover of a British company, after decades of consolidating its position in the brewery industry. The four large firms -AB InBev, SABMiller, Heineken and Carlsberg- are to be found all over the world and together make more than half of all the beer in the world.
3. Coca-Cola European Partners
After the merging of the Iberian Peninsula's bottling companies came the macro-union of those all over Europe. Bottling company Coca-Cola now has a net revenue of 11 billion euros. The company, which serves 300 million consumers in 13 European countries, 50 plants and 27,000 employees, is run by the Catalan Sol Daurella.
4. Pfizer i Allergan
The merger agreement between the creator of Viagra and the creator of Botox has produced the world's largest pharmaceutical company in terms of sales. Announced at the end of November, the deal was closed for some 150 billion dollars.
Pfizer, whose HQ is in the United States, has a market value of some 219 billion dollars, while Allergan, based in Ireland, has a market value of some 113 billion dollars. In March, the latter became the third largest producer of generic medicines in the United States after its merger with Actavis.
Pfizer's and Allergen's Spanish subsidiaries employ more than 1,000 people in Spain. The former has industrial facilities in the Madrid town of San Sebastián de los Reyes, as well as headquarters and delegations in Spain employing 1,000 people. For its part, Allergan has around a hundred employees in Spain, essentially devoted to commercial activity.
5. Bimbo and Panrico
In June, Bimbo acquired the Panrico company through the investment management firm Oaktree for 190 million euros. The takeover makes the bread and pastries manufacturer the leader in Spain, producing the popular Donuts, La Bella Easo, Bollycao, Silueta, Martínez and Ortiz. The resulting company has a turnover of 700 million euros and kept on the 2,000 Panrico employees, as well as opening new factories in Spain and Portugal. The new company enjoys a market share of 49.3% in bread and 20% in pastries.
6. Marriott and Starwood
The two hotel chains came together in November to create the largest hotel chain in the world. Marriott paid 11,080 million euros in shares and 340 million euros in cash. The resulting company now has 5,500 hotels and 1.1 million rooms in a hundred countries. The combined revenue of the two companies in the past 12 months (from September 2014 to the same month in 2015) rose to 2.7 billion dollars (2.5 billion euros).
Marriot boasts 79 hotels in Spain of which 67 belong to the joint venture with hotel group AC Hotels. In the Catalan capital, the company owns the Renaissance Barcelona Fira Hotel, the Renaissance Barcelona Hotel and the well-known Hotel Arts. Starwood Hotels&Resorts Worldwide manages 17 hotels in Spain, among which are the Westin Palace in Madrid and the W Barcelona.
7. Activision and Candy Crush
The video-game company Activision acquired King, creator of the popular Candy Crush Saga. The US multinational paid 5.3 billion euros for the company that makes games for smartphones and platforms like Facebook. Activision took this action in order to increase its presence in the mobile telephone segment of the market.
Activision was the first independent developer and distributor of video games, founded in 1979. In its portfolio, the company has such well-known games as Crash Bandicoot, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Spiderman, Spyro the Dragon and Tony Hawk. With an annual turnover of 2.9 billion dollars, it employs 4,670 people.
For its part, King, which will continue to work independently, has almost 500 million individual users and its apps occupy the top three positions in the sales ranking of the iOs App Store and Google Play.
8. Sabadell buys TSB
The Catalan financial institution purchased the UK's seventh-largest bank. The British bank has 8,600 employees, a network of 631 branches and 4.5 million clients. With the takeover of 100% of TSB's shares, Sabadell paid a total of 2.35 billion euros to enter the UK market.
Banc Sabadell relaunched its strategy and increased its global presence to match Santander and BBVA. With the buyout, the bank's foreign market share went from 5% to 22%. TSB contributed some 40 million euros to Sabadell's most recent results.
9. Caixabank buys Barclays in Spain
At the beginning of the year, we learned about the acquisition of the Barclays's Spanish subsidiary by Caixabank for some 820 million. The takeover meant the incorporation of 550,000 clients and a turnover of 33.4 billion euros, while increasing its penetration in other areas of the State.
While the other Spanish banking institutions are entering foreign markets, Caixabank has opted to focus on the Spanish market.
10. Bright Food takes over Miquel Alimentació
The SSCW group, subsidiary of the Chinese giant Bright Food, bought the distribution chain Miquel Alimnetació for 110 million. Despite the acquisition, the Chinese company said it would keep the 2,500 employees and the director general, Pere Laymon. Bright Food's aim is to turn the company from Figueres into an entry platform for Spanish and European products into China.
Founded in Figueres in 1925, Miquel Alimentació last year had a turnover of 900 million euros and has 2,000 sales outlets in the whole of Spain, between franchises with the brands Suma and Spar and small independent supermarket chains, while Bright Food is a public industrial conglomerate based in Shanghai with a turnover of 18 billion euros and 100,000 sales outlets.