2016 Global M&A deal value dips 21% to $3.69 trillion

After three consecutive year-on-year rise, global merger and acquisition deal value declined by 21 per cent to $3.69 trillion this year, says a report. According to global deal tracking firm Dealogic, in 2016, the number of M&A deal value fell 21 per cent over last year, while M&A revenue declined by 6 per cent by mid-December. “Global M&A volume reached $3.69 trillion by December 16, 2016, down 21 per cent compared to the 2015 full year record high of $4.66 trillion,” Dealogic said in a report. Interestingly, the fourth quarter global M&A ($1.12 trillion) hit the $1 trillion mark in the first week of December, the biggest quarter since the October-December period of 2015, when transactions stood at $1.39 trillion. This is only the “tenth time that quarterly volume has surpassed the trillion mark”, Dealogic said. AT&T’s $107.9 billion bid for Time Warner, announced on October 22, is the seventh largest M&A transaction on record and the biggest deal announced in 2016. The biggest year-on-year drop was in domestic M&A, down 26 per cent to $2.40 trillion in 2016 from the record volume of $3.23 trillion in 2015. Global cross border M&A was down 10 per cent to $1.29 trillion compared to the $1.43 trillion in 2015. Number of transactions for for all top 10 targeted nations globally fell year-on-year. The UK witnessed biggest decline with a 51 per cent drop to $212.3 billion, its lowest M&A volume since 2013, followed by China and the US, down 31 per cent and 22 per cent respectively, Dealogic said.