DealZone

This year’s annual August doldrums was one for the record books.

U.S. M&A for the month totalled $13 billion, its lowest since February 1994, while global M&A stood at $72 billion, the lowest since February 2003, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

The largest U.S. deal was Warner Chilcott’s $3.1 billion purchase of Procter & Gamble’s prescription drug business.

Year-to-date, however, European M&A has suffered even more, with total deal value halving to $378.4 billion. U.S. mergers, at $441.5 billion, have fallen 40 percent from a year ago. Fees for completed in August sank to $694 million, the lowest since records started in 1998, according to Thomson Reuters.

Global financial sponsor deals reached $2.4 billion, the lowest level of activity in 8 years. Privaty equity and other financial sponsor activity accounted for only 3.2 percent of total M&A activity in August. So far this year, global buyouts totaled $32.1 billion, down 80 percent from a year ago, the data showed.