Cross-border merger and acquisition (M&A) deals declined significantly in the last year across the world.
World Investment Report (WIR) 2018 showed that M&A decreased by 22 per cent to $694 billion in 2018 from $ 887 billion in 2017.
“Although total global M&A activity (including domestic deals) has been robust over the past few years, the aggregate value of net cross-border M&As, which had been on the rise since 2013, contracted in 2017,” said the report.
“The number of M&A transactions, however, sustained its upward trend to almost 7,000,” it added.
The report was released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in the first week of June this year.
The drop in the primary sector was sharp, by 70 per cent to only $24 billion in the past year.
