Ouch!

Things are going from bad to worse at Bank of America Merrill Lynch's European investment banking team.

This year the hyper bullish investment bank has advised on three high-profile, European "bear hugs" that have gone nowhere. Those bear hugs were: Pfizer's £70 billion bid for AstraZeneca; Weir Group's attempt to merge with Finland's Metso as part of a £8.5 billion deal; and Destination Maternity's £300m tilt for Mothercare.

Bear hug

Quelle surprise - another Bank of America Merrill Lynch bear hug has fallen over.

This year the Wall Street investment bank has advised several companies trying to buy rival businesses using a "bear hug", an aggressive tactic used in M&A to force the the target company to the negotiating table by making an indicative offer public.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch returns with another bear hug

Hat tip to Bryce Elder, the stock market reporter over at the Financial Times, for landing the best M&A story of the morning and who looks to be on a bit of deals story winning streak (remember last week Bryce broke the story about the Dialog and AMS merger - time for a pay rise, Ed?).

This morning the flying scotsman revealed in his market report that Mothercare had received a £266m takeover bid from US outfit Destination Maternity Corporation. Here is a link to Bryce's market report: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/bcc5efe8-013b-11e4-9750-00144feab7de.html#axzz36INXxo2U