Global M&A activity up 10% in first nine months of 2025: BCG study
The deal value in the Asia-Pacific region falls 19% to a 10-year low of US$284 billion
[ZURICH] Global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity grew 10 per cent in the first nine months of 2025 compared with the same period last year, extending a gradual recovery despite uncertainty over US tariff policies and geopolitical conflict, a study showed on Tuesday (Oct 28).
The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Global M&A Report showed that the deal volume rose to US$1.938 trillion from January to September compared with US$1.763 trillion in the same nine months of 2024.
It marked the second consecutive increase and was the highest total over the period since 2022, when the first nine months’ activity was worth US$2.17 trillion.
“While headwinds such as geopolitical tensions and changing tariff policies have caused some dealmakers to pause, many others have pressed forward strategically,” noted BCG.
Still, the sum was more than 40 per cent below the US$3.3 trillion registered over the same period in 2021, it added.
More than 60 per cent of the 2025 activity involved targets in North America. There, the value jumped by just over a quarter from the same period last year to US$1.2 trillion.
In Europe, by contrast, M&A deal volumes declined 5 per cent to US$375 billion.
The deal value in the Asia-Pacific region fell 19 per cent to a 10-year low of US$284 billion.
All told, US$536 billion in M&A activity came from technology, media and telecoms, with financial institutions and real estate making up US$357 billion and industrials US$280 billion.
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Britain remained the biggest M&A market in Europe, although the value of deals there decreased by 35 per cent. It also declined by 58 per cent in Spain and 29 per cent in France, the study showed.
By contrast, the value of activity in the Netherlands surged by 263 per cent and in Switzerland by 109 per cent. Germany was up 45 per cent, Italy 28 per cent and the Nordics 31 per cent, said BCG. REUTERS
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