Mergermarket, an independent and proprietary M&A media service, announced the findings for its quarterly Texas M&A Round-Up for the first half of 2012. According to mergermarket data, M&A activity in Texas in H1 2012 accounted for 172 deals worth US$ 57.6bn, which represented a 13.6% increase in deal value from H1 2011 (187 deals valued at US$ 50.7bn). In Q2 2012, which saw 96 deals worth US$ 37.1bn, Texas M&A had the highest deal count since Q4 2010 (102 deals worth US$ 19.8bn). Q2 2012 also saw a 25.8% increase by deal value from Q2 2011 (94 deals valued at US$ 29.5bn).

“Energy deals continued to dominate the Texas deal-making landscape in the first half of 2012, led by the sale of El Paso Corporation's upstream energy assets to a consortium led by the Apollo Group for USD 7.2bn,” said Chad Watt, mergermarket's Texas correspondent. “Energy Transfer Partners' USD 7bn acquisition of Sunoco at the end of April was the largest deal involving public companies as buyers and sellers. Transactions between private equity firms and public energy companies accounted for the remainder of the biggest energy deals thus far this year in Texas.

"Big public energy businesses and energy focused private equity firms have been taking advantage of soft commodity prices to make buys," added Watt. "These buyers believe energy production in the US will continue to grow and remain profitable despite near-term commodity price declines."

JPMorgan topped the financial advisor league table by deal value, with 11 deals valued at US$ 37.6bn, while Barclays topped the financial advisor league table by deal count, with 15 deals valued at US$ 15.4bn. The top legal advisor by deal value was Bracewell & Giuliani, with 18 deals valued at US$ 34.0bn. Vinson & Elkins topped the legal advisor league tables by deal count, with 37 deals valued at US$ 26.5bn.