A total of 1,181 deals were announced globally during the week ended June, 7, 2020, which is an increase of 21.9% over the 969 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 the growth during this week was after two consecutive weeks of the decline. The number of deals announced during the week was also more than the weekly average levels of April and May 2020. However, it is still lower than the Q1 2020 weekly average levels.”

Deal activity increased in some key markets during the week. Deals volume increased in the US (by 28.8%), China (66.2%), the UK (48.4%), Canada (12%), Australia (15.7%) and India (25%). Meanwhile, South Korea, Japan, Germany and France witnessed decline in the number of announced deals by 20%, 6.7%, 27.6% and 52.2%, respectively.

Deal activity in sectors such as healthcare (including pharmaceuticals and medical equipment), travel & tourism and retail also improved during the week.

Most key deal types witnessed growth in deal volume. While private equity and venture financing deals volume increased by 57.1% and 5.5% respectively during the week ended June 7, 2020 compared to the previous week, the number of equity offerings, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and partnership deals increased by 33.3%, 43.4% and 10.5%, respectively. The number of licensing agreement and debt offering deals decreased by 27.3% and 1.3%, respectively.