Mergers and acquisitions are the lifeblood vehicle for investors. M&A activity in the first half of the year was down 35% - down to roughly $1.579 trillion.
Investment bankers are bracing for more job cuts as volumes fail to recover from their first-quarter tumble, according to preliminary Thomson Reuters numbers released today, and the outlook remains bleak for the rest of 2008.
Global M&A activity fell 35 percent in the year to date to $1.579 trillion, according to the first-half data, as the credit crunch kept buyout firms away from large deals and economic uncertainty made companies reluctant to push the button.
Private equity buyout activity, which underpinned the recent M&A boom, fell 66 percent in Europe to $48 billion and slumped by 86 percent in the United States to $42 billion in the first half.
With inflation rising and no end in sight for economic woes in the U.S. and Europe, it seems unlikely that volumes will recover quickly to the record levels seen for the year until June 2007, observers said.
Leave a Reply