A total of 40,374 deals (comprising mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced globally during the first three quarters (Q1-Q3) of 2023. This represents a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 24.3% in volume over 53,369 deals announced during the same period in 2022, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database also revealed that all the deal types under coverage recorded a considerable year-on-year decline during Q1-Q3 2023 compared to Q1-Q3 2022.

The total number of M&A deals and private equity deals declined by 17.3% and 27.5% during Q1-Q3 2023, respectively, compared to the same period in 2022, while the volume of venture financing deals declined by 33%.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Subdued deal activity remains a common phenomenon across all regions. Uncertain economic conditions took a hit on the global deal landscape and resulted in a massive decline in deal activity. Geo-political tensions are impacting deal activity largely, while inflation, recession fears, and the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war are also having a notable impact on deal-making sentiments. Resultantly, deal activity took a hit in most of the key markets across these regions.”

The North American region witnessed a decline of 28.5% in deal volume during Q1-Q3 2023 compared to Q1-Q3 2022, while Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America regions also saw respective deals volume decline by 20.5%, 20.6%, 26.2%, and 29.1%.

Meanwhile, deal volume also declined in several key global markets. For instance, the US, China, the UK, Canada, India, Japan, Germany, Australia, France, and South Korea registered a decline in deal volume by 30.3%, 13.8%, 15%, 11.5%, 28.9%, 17.4%, 22.2%, 20.7%, 17.7%, and 31.8%, during Q1-Q3 2023 compared to Q1-Q3 2022, respectively.

(Note: Historic data may change in case some deals get added to previous months because of a delay in disclosure of information in the public domain)