A total of 54,787 deals* were announced globally during January to October 2022, which is an 8.3% decline compared to the 59,760 deals that were announced during the same period last year, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “There are several reasons for the decline in deal-making sentiments including the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, geopolitics, rising inflation, the energy crisis and uncertain economic conditions.”

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database revealed that all the deal types under coverage witnessed a decline in deal activity. The number of private equity deals declined by 12.6% during January to October 2022 over the same period in 2021, while venture financing and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) deals volume were down by 10.6% and 5.5%, respectively.

North America continued to dominate the global deals landscape during January to October 2022 despite suffering a 15.7% decline in deals volume compared to the same period last year. Akin to North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the South & Central America regions also witnessed a decline of 3.6%, 1.4% and 1.9% in deals volume, respectively, while the Middle East & Africa region emerged as an exception and registered a growth of 5.7%.

Deal activity also remained subdued across several key markets, declining by 15.4% in the US, China (15.2%), the UK (8.3%), Canada (18.6%), Germany (5.1%), Australia (8.6%) and France (4.9%). Meanwhile, deal activity increased in India (by 12.3%), Japan (15.9%), South Korea (8.4%), Singapore (9.3%), South Africa (8%), the UAE (11%) and Egypt (42.4%).

*Comprising M&A, private equity and venture financing deals