Global M&A falls 18% to $1.71 trn in first half of 2016

Global merger and acquisition activity for the first half of this year amounted to USD 1.71 trillion, registering a decline of 18 per cent over the same period last year, says a Dealogic report.
According to the global deal tracking firm, after three successive quarters with USD 1 trillion volume in 2015, global M&A fell to USD 758.5 billion and USD 951.6 billion in March quarter and June quarter of 2016, respectively.
For the January-June period, there were merger and acquisition activity worth USD 1.71 trillion, down 18 per cent year-on-year basis. In the first half of 2015, M&A deals worth USD 2.09 trillion were announced.

There was also a dearth of mega deals during the first six months of this year. Just 16 big ticket deals were announced in the first half of 2016 amounting to USD 336.9 billion, while in the corresponding period last year the figure stood at 24.
The largest M&A deal announced in the April-June period was a cross-border deal in the agribusiness sector, Bayer's USD 62 billion bid for Monsanto.
Sector wise, technology led global M&A in the first half of 2016 for the first time on record with USD 294.8 billion, up 6 per cent year-on-year.

Microsoft's proposed USD 28.1 billion acquisition of LinkedIn, announced on June 13, is the largest ever deal by a software giant, and the fourth largest M&A deal in 2016 to date.

Real Estate (USD 190.4 billion) and Healthcare (USD 187.9 billion) completed the top three sectors in the January-June period of this year, with volume down 18 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, year-on-year.
Goldman Sachs was the top advisor for global M&A in the first half of 2016, followed by Morgan Stanley and Bank of America Merrill Lynch, the report added.