Global M&A activity down 38 per cent amidst downturn

The global merger and acquisition activity is still weighed down by the economic downturn as volumes have so far amounted to $1.38 trillion this year which is down 38 per cent from the year ago period.

According to deal tracking firm Dealogic, this year M&A activity has been the most sluggish since 2005 with only 18,000 deals recorded by 5 August. The downturn was recorded both in terms of volumes as well as value. The global M&A deal count was 20,000 on 5 August.

Last year the figures for the same date stood at over 25,000 deals with the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa) being the most active region attracting 7,652 deals till 5 August which accounted for 38 per cent of global M&A deal count.

However, going by the most targeted nations, the UK led with the maximum number of transactions. It cornered 1,261 deals with Russia taking the second place with 1,049 deals.

Middle market M&A involving deals valued between $100 million and $1billion also witnessed a sharp drop this year with only $215.5 billion so far as compared with $404.7 billion in the year ago period.