DealZone

Here are the highlights from this week’s Thomson Reuters investment banking scorecard:

Cadbury deal lifts UK M&A to $168.8 billion

The $19.3 billion offer by Kraft Foods for UK confectioner Cadbury lifted UK target M&A to $168.8 billion for the year-to-date period, an increase of 19% over last year. The transaction could rank as the second largest non-government acquisition in the UK this year after Xstrata’s $42.5 billion bid for Anglo American in June.

UBS, which advised on both the Cadbury and Anglo deals as well as the UK government investments in Lloyds Banking Group and RBS, leads the year-to-date UK target league table with $124.6 billion from 21 announced deals.

Biggest week for U.S. corporate debt since May

Bolstered by multi-billion dollar deals in the financial and insurance sectors, the market for U.S. corporate investment grade debt saw its biggest week for news issues since May. Hong Kong’s Hutchison Whampoa topped the list of global debt offerings this week, raising $3 billion in the U.S. markets, while insurers Prudential Financial and Met Life each raised over $1 billion.

JP Morgan holds first place with 13% of the market, while Bank of America has 12.8% of investment grade underwriting in the U.S.

Asia Pacific tech M&A hits $15.2 billion

This week’s $3.1 billion acquisition of Singapore-based Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing by state-owned Advanced Technology Investment Co, a UAE sovereign wealth fund, brings year-to-date Asia Pacific technology volume to $15.2 billion, a 33% increase over last year at this time.  Deals in the both the materials and consumer staples sectors are up over 60% in the region this year.

Overall, worldwide sovereign wealth fund acquisition activity totals $25 billion so far this year, a 32% decline over 2008.