A total of 22,525 deals (merger & acquisitions (M&A), private equity, and venture financing deals) were announced globally during January-May 2023, which was a decline of 27% over the 30,753 deals announced during same period in 2022, reveals GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.

An analysis of GlobalData’s Financial Deals Database revealed that all the deal types (under coverage) witnessed year-on-year (YoY) decline during January-May 2023. The number of M&A, private equity and venture financing deals declined by 21%, 28% and 33%, respectively, during the period.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “The decline in global deal activity reflects the impact of changing economic landscape. Uncertainties including the rising interest rates, high inflation, fear of recession and geopolitical tensions are making investors more cautious.”

Deals volume in North America YoY declined by 29% in January-May. Although the region witnessed subdued deal activity, it continued to dominate the global deal landscape by accounting for more than 40% of the number of deals announced globally during the period.

Akin to North America, all other regions registered decline in deal activity. Deals volume in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa, and South & Central America regions YoY declined by 23%, 25%, 30% and 36%, respectively, during January-May 2023.

In terms of countries, the US, China, the UK, Canada, India, Japan, Germany, France, Australia, South Korea and Spain reported YoY decline of 30%, 15%, 16%, 17%, 36%, 19%, 28%, 22%, 23%, 40% and 31%, respectively, during the period.