A total of 44,602 deals (mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity and venture financing) were announced globally during January-October 2023. This represents a year-on-year (YoY) decline of 23.8% compared to the 58,540 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 reveals that all the deal types under the coverage registered considerable decline YoY in volume during January-October 2023.

The number of venture financing deals declined by 32.1% during January-October 2023 compared to January-October 2022 while the volume of private equity deals and M&A deals witnessed YoY decline of 29% and 16.8%, respectively.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The ongoing geopolitical tensions coupled with associated macroeconomic challenges and uncertain business conditions seem to have been playing a pivotal role in shaping the deal-making sentiments and we are seeing the potential ramifications on deal activity across all the regions and key markets.”

For instance, the number of deals announced in North America declined by 28.2% during January-October 2023 compared to the same period in the previous year. Akin to North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa and South and Central American regions also witnessed YoY decline by 19.8%, 19.5%, 26.5% and 29.8%, respectively, during January-October 2023.

Meanwhile, the deal activity also declined in several key markets during the period. The US, China, the UK, Canada, India, Japan, Germany, Australia, France and South Korea saw deal volume declining by 30.1%, 13.3%, 15.1%, 9.8%, 26.1%, 17.3%, 20.4%, 22.3%, 17.8% and 29.5%, respectively, during January-October 2023 compared to January-October 2022.