Global M&A deal value falls to $3.69 trn this year: Dealogic

After three consecutive year-on-year rise, global merger and acquisition deal value declined by 21 percent to USD 3.69 trillion this year, says a report.

According to global deal tracking firm Dealogic, in 2016, the number of M&A deal value fell 21 percent over last year, while M&A revenue declined by 6 percent by mid-December.

"Global M&A volume reached USD 3.69 trillion by December 16, 2016, down 21 percent compared to the 2015 full year record high of USD 4.66 trillion," Dealogic said in a report.

Interestingly, the fourth quarter global M&A (USD 1.12 trillion) hit the USD 1 trillion mark in the first week of December, the biggest quarter since the October-December period of 2015, when transactions stood at USD 1.39 trillion.

This is only the "tenth time that quarterly volume has surpassed the trillion mark", Dealogic said.

AT&T's USD 107.9 billion bid for Time Warner, announced on October 22, is the seventh largest M&A transaction on record and the biggest deal announced in 2016.

The biggest year-on-year drop was in domestic M&A, down 26 percent to USD 2.40 trillion in 2016 from the record volume of USD 3.23 trillion in 2015. Global cross border M&A was down 10 percent to USD 1.29 trillion compared to the USD 1.43 trillion in 2015.

Number of transactions for for all top 10 targeted nations globally fell year-on-year.

The UK witnessed biggest decline with a 51 percent drop to USD 212.3 billion, its lowest M&A volume since 2013, followed by China and the US, down 31 percent and 22 percent respectively, Dealogic said.