M&As soar 44% to $49.34bn in H1

Despite the second wave of Covid-19 scuppering normal life, the deal street was busy in the first half of 2021, closing 44 per cent more deals worth $49.34 billion than in the same period in 2020 that was also ravaged by the first wave of the killer viral infections, shows an industry report.

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) were worth $34.3 billion in the same period in 2020. Deal volume grew five per cent to 730 from 693 a year ago, according to the latest data from Refinitiv, the LSE Group arm that is into financial markets data. Of the total, cross-border M&As amounted to $21.73 billion across 210 deals, up from $16.02 billion across 195 deals in the same period in 2020. Globally, quarterly M&As surpassed one trillion for fourth consecutive quarter, making it the strongest year-on-year percentage growth on record. Worldwide M&As totalled $2.8 trillion during the first half, up a record 132 per cent compared to the same period last year. This is the strongest opening for deal making since records began in 1980. Of this deals bigger than $10 billion have increased 94 per cent, while deals of one-five billion have registered triple-digit percentage gains. US deals jumped to an all-time high of $1.4 trillion, up 264 per cent compared to last year, European deals rose 33 per cent to $556 billion and deals across Asia-Pacific rose 83 per cent to $551.6 billion to an all-time high.