Legal Business

Sponsors, pharma and tech fire up deal activity despite a subdued year for marquee M&A in Europe

A dearth of megadeals in 2019 did little to dampen the spirits of dealmakers with buyout teams capitalising on the ongoing private equity boom while wider pharma and tech deals drove bid activity.

On the face of it, headline figures from Mergermarket speak of a subdued year, with global M&A activity declining 6.9% from 2018 to $3.33trn. The picture in Europe was considerably more gloomy, with the continent seeing a 21.9% dive in total deal value to $770.5bn.