A total of 5,013 deals (mergers & acquisitions, private equity and venture financing) were announced globally during February 2021, which is a month-on-month decline of 4.5% over the 5,247 deals announced during January, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Although some countries are showcasing improvement in deal-making sentiments, market conditions still remain volatile in some of the key markets. In fact, the decline in February is primarily attributed to the subdued deal activity in the US and China.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database reveals that North America accounted for the highest share of deal volume in February followed by Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America. While North America and Europe witnessed decline in deal volume by 12.7% and 1.8%, respectively, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America registered growth in deal activity by 3.9%, 24.8% and 32.6%, respectively.

Key markets such as the US and China witnessed decline in deal volume by 15.7% and 25.3%, respectively. However, markets such as Australia, Japan, South Korea, India, Canada, France and the UK registered growth in deal volume by 59%, 47.3%, 31.8%, 22.8%, 17.4%, 8%, and 6%, respectively, though it was not enough to offset the decline experienced by the US and China.

Deal activity also showcased decline across merger & acquisitions (M&A) and private equity, which witnessed decline in deal volume by 3.2% and 27.8%, respectively, in February compared to the previous month while venture financing deals volume saw a marginal growth of 0.3%.