A total of 1,118 deals were announced globally during the week ended June 28, 2020, which is a decrease of 8% over 1,215 deals announced during the previous week, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Global deal activity has remained inconsistent due to volatile market conditions since the COVID-19 outbreak and this decline comes after the 7% growth witnessed during the week ended 21 June. While the number of deals announced during the week was more than the weekly average levels of April and May 2020, it is still lower than the Q1 2020 weekly average levels.”

Deal activity has also remained inconsistent across geographies since the outbreak. Deal volume declined in markets such as the US (by 11.2%), China (48.9%), South Korea (35%), India (24.4%), Germany (7.1%) and France (17.9%) during the week ended June 28, 2020 compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, the UK and Australia witnessed growth in the number of announced deals by 29.8% and 20.3%, respectively.

Deal activity in sectors such as travel & tourism and healthcare (including pharmaceuticals and medical equipment) declined during the week ended June 28, 2020 compared to the previous week while the retail sector witnessed improvement.

Deal types such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity, venture financing, partnerships and debt offerings witnessed decline in deal volume by 5.6%, 14.5%, 14.1%, 16.2% and 12.6%, respectively, during the week ended June 28, 2020 compared to the previous week, while the number of equity offering deals increased by 3.9%.