Cross-Border Deal Corridors to Boost M&A Volumes Nearly 10% for H1

• Globally $583 billion worth of deals have been announced so far in 2015, surpassing the $563 billion announced in Q1 last year.
• Inbound acquisitions into Europe are growing at their fastest pace in a decade, six out of the top ten deals announced in 2015 were from either North America or Asia.

M&A global deal volumes are predicted to rise by 8% for the first half of this year, to around 16,800 deals, according to Deloitte, the business advisory firm. So far, $583 billion worth of deals have been announced in 2015, surpassing the $563 billion announced in Q1 last year.

Iain Macmillan, head of M&A at Deloitte, commented: "For the first time since 2010, we are expecting to see four consecutive quarters of growth in deal volume. The factors driving M&A include the decline in oil prices, appreciation of the dollar and pressure from investors to focus on top-line growth."

Inbound acquisitions into Europe are growing at the fastest pace in a decade, and six out of the top ten deals announced in 2015 were from non-European acquirers. This reflects developments last year, when of the $797 billion invested in European assets, just over a quarter were inbound deals by non-European acquirers.

Macmillan commented: "With many global currencies having depreciated against the dollar, assets abroad are looking more attractive for the US corporate sector. The euro depreciated by 21% against the dollar, whilst US inbound deals into Europe increased by 30%."

Meanwhile, in 2014, Chinese companies announced a record $46.8 billion of outbound M&A, more than ten times the amount spent a decade ago.

Macmillan said: "Chinese companies are countering the slowdown in their economy with a remarkable international expansionary programme, using M&A. Europe received the largest share of China's foreign M&A investment, with deal values tripling from $4.1 billion in 2013 to $13.5 billion in 2014."

Macmillan concluded: "The sheer number of elections coming up this year in Europe, and then the preparation for the US elections could cause buyers to temporarily pause. This shouldn't distract from the overall picture, which shows confidence returning."

End

The Deloitte M&A Index is a forward-looking statistical indicator that forecasts future global M&A deal volumes and identifies the factors influencing conditions for deal activities.

Notes to editors

About Deloitte
In this press release references to Deloitte are references to Deloitte LLP, which is among the country's leading professional services firms.

Deloitte LLP is the United Kingdom member firm of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited ("DTTL"), a UK private company limited by guarantee, whose member firms are legally separate and independent entities. Please see www.deloitte.co.uk/about for a detailed description of the legal structure of DTTL and its member firms.

The information contained in this press release is correct at the time of going to press.