Merger and acquisition (M&A) activity soared in the first quarter, with the total value of deals done reaching $10.6 billion in Bermuda.

That represented an increase of $3.6 billion, or 51 percent from the first three months of last year, according to the Offshore-i report released yesterday by offshore law firm Appleby.

Appleby noted that deal value across offshore jurisdictions increased 79 percent from last year and was the highest it has been since the end of 2012.

“This quarter’s average transaction size of $110 million across jurisdictions is the highest in the past seven years, aside from the anomalous final quarter of 2012 when a single $56 billion transaction caused average deal values to spike,” said Timothy Faries, partner and group head of Corporate and Commercial in Bermuda.

“The growth in average deal size is the clearest sign yet of a new depth to the market, as investors become ever more willing to put money to work on larger transactions.”

In the first quarter of this year, Bermuda was home to 96 transactions worth a combined $10.61 billion, giving an average transaction size of $111 million.

The sector that saw the most activity across offshore jurisdictions during the quarter was financial and insurance activities — substantially fuelled by Bermuda.

Appleby stated: “While the report focuses primarily on matters involving an offshore target, it also found that Bermuda was active in terms of acquisitions involving a local company acting as an acquirer.

“Bermuda companies acted as acquirers in 50 transactions worth $20.22 billion, which marked the highest acquirer average deal value across jurisdictions, of just over $400 million.

“Five of the ten largest acquirer deals involved Bermuda-based businesses, with the $5 billion acquisition by Brookfield Property Partners of the 49 percent of commercial real estate developer Brookfield Office Properties that it did not already own, topping the list.”

Across all offshore jurisdictions, Appleby reported a total of 572 deals in the first quarter, down from the previous quarter but busier than the first quarter of 2013, which saw 528 deals. Though there were fewer deals, deal value came in at $62.9 billion — up 14 percent on the previous quarter and marking the fifth consecutive quarter for cumulative deal value growth.

“The most significant conclusion to be drawn from the quarter’s figures is that we’ve turned a corner away from a difficult five years following the global financial crisis,” said Cameron Adderley, partner and global head of Corporate and Commercial. “The number of deals in Q1 2014 was down compared to the previous quarter as expected, but total deal value and average deal size were up, setting the stage for a busy 2014.”

There were 15 deals in excess of $1 billion in the quarter, including five worth more than $2 billion, and the deals spanned a wide range of sectors. Similar to the growth in average deal size, this spread of sector types indicates a depth returning to the market.

There were 34 initial public offerings (IPOs) announced in the quarter worth a total of $11.7 billion. In the past decade, that cumulative value has only been topped on five occasions. Additionally, this quarter’s average IPO of $345 million has only been beaten once in the last decade.