The global merger and acquisitions (M&A) activity witnessed a significant year-on-year (YoY) decline from January to May 2023 in comparison to the corresponding period in the previous year. The total number of M&A deals announced globally during January-May 2023 amounted to 12,619, marking a decline of 21.4% compared to the 16,055 M&A deals announced during January-May 2022, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database revealed that the disclosed deal value for these M&A deals also experienced an YoY decline of 39.1% from $1.4 trillion to $832.4 billion.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The M&A deal activity in the region has largely been affected by the macroeconomic challenges amid the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, geopolitical tensions, inflation and recession fears. Deal-makers seem to be adopting a cautious approach given the uncertain market conditions.”

North America witnessed a 22.8% YOY decline in M&A deals volume during January-May 2023 while Europe, Asia-Pacific, South and Central America, and Middle East and Africa witnessed YoY decline of 23.6%, 16.3%, 18% and 19.3%, respectively, during the period.

Meanwhile, despite the decline, North America continued to dominate the global M&A deal landscape. It accounted for 40.5% of the total number of M&A deals announced globally during January-May 2023.

Several key markets across the world witnessed subdued M&A activity during January-May 2023. For instance, the US, the UK, Canada, China, Japan, India, Australia, Germany, and France reported a YoY decline of 24.3%, 5.8%, 13%, 9%, 16.8%, 22.2%, 13.7%, 31.9% and 29.6%, respectively, during January-May 2023.

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.