Prediction for the global deal market in 2018, including cross-border and cross-sector trends. We anticipate a robust year of global M&A activity in 2018, with appetite and capacity for transactions expected to increase. For the year ahead, global predicted appetite for M&A deals is projected to increase by 5 percent, while predicted capacity is also projected to go up over the same period by 17 percent, according to our M&A Predictor data.
Transactions in Q1 2018 continued the 2017 trend of deal volume and value moving in opposite directions: 2017 deal volume rose to 39,968 from 37,484 or about 7 percent while deal value declined 8 percent to US$3.479 trillion from US$3.797 trillion. However, 2018 is showing significantly more strength, in line with an improvement in predicted appetite.
Total deal value in Q1 2018 soared to just past US$1 trillion, accompanied by a 17-percent decline in volume to 8,537. As a result, average deal value in the first quarter of this year was also up significantly, rising about 42 percent to a 10-year high of US$124.6 million per deal.
M&A activity in 2017 was very similar to 2016 – down somewhat from 2015’s record highs but certainly robust, with mid-market transactions continuing to be a driver of volume. Mixed global factors exerting an impact on 2017 activity included low interest rates, geopolitical issues and US tax legislation that was in the works. M&A activity started to pick up in Q3 and through Q4 to close the year strongly, with December the strongest month of the year and featuring two of the year’s largest deals.
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