Bermuda’s rate of mergers and acquisitions has hit $8 billion in the third quarter of the year — up ten percent on the same period in 2012, a new report has revealed.

Offshore legal specialists Appleby, in its Offshore-i report, said the Island was involved in a total of 87 deals in the third quarter, up from 79 last year.

The average transaction was worth nearly $70 million — above the average of $64 million for the nine offshore jurisdictions looked at in the report.

Appleby Bermuda group head of corporate and commercial Timothy Faries said: “Bermuda remains an attractive environment for dealmakers as shown by the sustained activity on the island.

“We are optimistic this trend will continue through the end of the year as deal activity in Bermuda, along with other offshore economies, continues to stabilise.”

Cameron Adderley, Appleby partner and global head of the firm’s corporate and commercial group, added: “The offshore markets, which represent critical links in the global supply chain of trade and investment flows worldwide, are exhibiting signs of robustness after several years of volatility.

“That is a development we have been looking out for since we began our Offshore-i series and we view it as a critical requirement of a sustainable macroeconomic recovery.”

The report said that the third quarter of 2013 saw three institutional buyouts with a combined value of $834 million.

It added: “The return of these deals — the most common private equity structure for mid to large transactions — marks a positive step forward for the private equity industry, where offshore activity in recent years has been heavily focused on smaller management buyout deals.

“In Bermuda, construction piling company Tysan Holdings was purchased by Tides Holdings, a wholly owned subsidiary of Blackstone, for $320 million.

“In another major private equity deal, Blackstone Group purchased Cayman Island banking services software developer Pactera Technology and four sponsor-led merger and acquisition deals feature in the top 20 largest upcoming deals.”

The report added that figures for the third quarter of the year were consistent with performance in two earlier quarters “indicating transactional activity is continuing to stabilise”.