US retail industry sees a drop of 23.4% in deal activity in December 2019

The US retail industry saw a drop of 23.4% in overall deal activity during December 2019, when compared with the last 12-month average, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

A total of 36 deals worth $2.55bn were announced in December 2019, compared to the 12-month average of 47 deals.

M&A was the leading category in the month in terms of volume with 21 deals which accounted for 58.3% of all deals.

In second place was venture financing with 13 deals, followed by private equity with two transactions, respectively accounting for 36.1% and 5.6% of overall deal activity in the country’s retail industry during the month.

In terms of the value of deals, M&A was the leading deal category in the US retail industry with total deals worth $2.19bn, followed by venture financing deals totaled $360.55m.

US retail industry deals in December 2019: Top deals

The top five retail industry deals accounted for 97.4% of the overall value during December 2019.

The combined value of the top five retail deals stood at $2.48bn, against the overall value of $2.55bn recorded for the month.

The top five retail industry deals of December 2019 tracked by GlobalData were:

• Asbury Automotive Group’s $1bn asset transaction with Park Place Motorcars
• The $738.27m acquisition of Diplomat Pharmacy by OptumRx
• Franchise Group’s $450m acquisition of American Freight Group
• The $254m venture financing of Vroom by Durable Capital Partners, L Catterton and T. Rowe Price Group
• Alfred Lin’s venture financing of Dolls Kill for $40m