M & A ACTIVITY @ IT's PEAK

The 2015 was a record year for global merger and acquisitions (M&A) as corporates announced deals worth USD 4.86 trillion and a significant portion of this came from Asia Pacific targeted deals, says a report. According to global deal tracking firm Dealogic, global M&A volume at USD 4.86 trillion in 2015 was the highest on record for any year, surpassing the previous record of USD 4.61 trillion in 2007. Moreover, this year's total is a good 33 per cent higher than the last year. In another first, the Asia Pacific targeted M&A broke the USD 1 trillion mark, reaching USD 1.16 trillion in 2015, and accounted for a record 24 per cent share of global M&A. Sectorwise, healthcare was the top ranked sector in 2015 with USD 708.7 billion, up 62 per cent from 2014 when deals worth USD 436.3 billion were announced. Technology was a close second with record high volume and activity (USD 697.4 billion by way of 9,038 deals), almost double 2014 volume (USD 326.1 billion). The four largest technology deals on record were all announced in 2015, led by Dell's USD 66 billion bid for EMC, announced on October 1. Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs (USD 1.76 trillion), Morgan Stanley (USD 1.49 trillion), JPMorgan (USD 1.48 trillion) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (USD 1.12 trillion) all recorded their highest annual advisory volumes on record. All these firms surpassed their previous M&A records set in 2007, the report added.