A total of 28,277 deals (comprising mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced globally during January to July 2024. This represents a 16.1% year-on-year (YoY) decline in deal volume compared to the announcement of 33,686 deals during the same period in the previous year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The decline was driven by subdued activity experienced across all the regions. Global deal activity has continued to remain subdued in 2024 amid market volatility, macroeconomic challenges, and ongoing geopolitical tensions.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database revealed that North America, which continued to dominate the global deal landscape, saw deal volume decline by 19.6% during January-July 2024 compared to January-July 2023, whereas other regions such as Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and South and Central American regions saw respective deal volume decline by 16.9%, 9.9%, 11.7%, and 27.7% YoY during the review period.

In fact, most of the key markets within these regions also experienced a decline in deal volume. For instance, the US, the UK, China, Canada, Germany, Australia, South Korea, France, Italy, and the Netherlands witnessed YoY declines in deal volume by 19%, 10.7%, 21.1%, 24.9%, 18.9%, 2.6%, 1.3%, 36.4%, 15.8%, and 17.3% during January to July 2024, respectively. However, India and Japan emerged as notable exceptions to showcase some improvement in deal activity.

Bose adds: “Meanwhile, all the deal types under coverage also witnessed a decline in volume during the review period.”

The number of M&A deals declined by 10.4% during January-July 2024 compared to January-July 2023, whereas the volume of private equity deals and venture financing deals declined by 14.6% and 25% YoY, respectively.