Source: GlobalData
Global deal activity down by 12.5% YoY during Q1-Q3 2024, finds GlobalData
Posted in Business Fundamentals
A total of 36,992 deals (comprising mergers & acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced globally during January to September (Q1-Q3) 2024, which represents a 12.5% year-on-year (YoY) decline over 42,288 deals announced during the same period in 2023, according to GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
An analysis of GlobalData’s Deals Database disclosed that the volume of M&A deals declined by 6.7% during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023 while the number of private equity deals and venture financing deals experienced YoY fall of 8.9% and 22.2%, respectively.
Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The majority of the decline in global deal activity came from Q1 and Q2 while the impact was relatively much lesser in Q3. Although the deal activity continued to remain subdued in 2024, the impact seems to be diminishing in recent months or quarters. For instance, the decline in Q3 2024 compared to Q3 2023 remained at just 1%, whereas when compared between Q1 2024 and Q1 2023, the decline stood much higher at around 20% in Q1 2024.
“The relatively lesser decline could be attributed to improving deal-making sentiments in some regions. In fact, the trend across regions also remained a mixed bag during Q1-Q3 2024, with regions like Asia-Pacific showcasing just a single-digit decline while North America experienced a double-digit decline.”
North America experienced a 16% YoY decrease in the number of deals announced during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023, whereas Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East and Africa, and South and Central America regions saw respective deal volume fall by 13.6%, 6.8%, 7.6%, and 22.3% YoY.
Bose adds: “Deal activity across several countries also remained a mixed bag, with some experiencing significant decline and some witnessing relatively lesser decline while few markets experienced improvement.”
For instance, the US, the UK, China, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and Sweden witnessed YoY decline in deal volume by 15.4%, 7.2%, 22.8%, 21%, 17.9%, 30.8%, 9.4%, 16.7%, 20.2%, and 16%, respectively, during Q1-Q3 2024. Meanwhile, India, Japan, and Australia witnessed deal volume improve by 9.6%, 16.2%, and 2.2% during Q1-Q3 2024 compared to Q1-Q3 2023, respectively.