Dealflow in the Cambridge UK science & technology cluster reached an all-time high in April with transactions worth more than $8.9 billion – a new record.

It took the value of transactions to $101.963bn in the 37 months of Business Weekly’s Cambridge Deals Digest. That’s a monthly average of just under $2.76bn – also a new high.

The figures could have hit the stratosphere had Californian company Medivation Inc accepted a $9.3bn offer from Genzyme owner Sanofi – a bid that has now turned hostile. Sanofi is now targeting Medivation shareholders direct after initial rejection and the deal is expected to happen sooner rather than later.

Anglian Water was the biggest of the local big spenders – turning the tap on a $7.36bn investment programme. 
Life sciences again accounted for most deals in terms of volume, with AstraZeneca leading the way by unveiling a new $1bn genomics research centre in Cambridge.

Cambridge companies are set to benefit hugely from two new funds announced by Octopus ($147.28m) and Illumina ($100m). Those moves represented more faith in the market than is evident in almost daily, gloomy trade reports.
Another show of faith came from audio visual company Midwich with a $111m IPO on the AIM market.

Communications technology innovator Sepura announced that it intended to raise $74m to counter short-term working capital constraints while biotech company Vernalis is raising $59m to underpin product rollout.

The energy sector came to the party as DONG Energy announced a $15m East Coast Community Fund.

Origami Energy raised an additional $20.2m to commercialise monitoring innovation that eases pressure on the National Grid. It enables the intelligent management of distributed energy assets.

The fresh money was raised from existing shareholders, Cambridge Innovation Capital, Octopus Ventures and two private individuals, together with a new investment from Fred. Olsen-related companies.

On the contract front, smart metering specialist Cyan stole the headlines with an historic $15m deal in Iran, one of the first international contracts since global trade sanctions were lifted.

Sensors technology company Zettlex clinched deals worth $20m with major global players across sectors as varied as marine and space exploration.

There were property and retail transactions worth around $229m and additional life science and hi-tech deals worth just under $1bn in the month.