It doesn’t just feel slow, it is slow.
The global M&A volume stands at $751.6 billion so far this year, marking the slowest start to a year since 2003, when volume was $502.9 billion, according to data from Thomson Reuters.
Year-to-date volume has fallen 40 percent from the same period last year. That decline decline represents the worst drop in activity for the year-to-date period since 2001 when volume slipped 52 percent from 2000, Thomson Reuters said.
Europe has been hardest hit, with volume down 48 percent from last year. Asia, including Japan, has slipped 46 percent — marking a record for that region, Thomson Reuters said.
The U.S. has benefitted from some mega-deals at the start of the year (Remember those? Wyeth and Pfizer, Schering-Plough and Merck? Ah, the good days), so year-to-date volume is down only 33 percent.
Looking at cold, hard cash, global M&A fees for transactions completed this year stands at $6.7 billion, a 58 percent decline from a year-ago.
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