Global M&A activity up 10pc in first nine months of 2025, study shows

Global mergers and acquisitions activity grew 10 percent in the first nine months of 2025 compared with the same period last year, extending a gradual recovery despite uncertainty over U.S. tariff policies and geopolitical conflict, a study showed on Tuesday.

The Boston Consulting Group Global M&A Report showed the deal volume rose to US$1.94 trillion (HK$15.13 trillion) from January to September compared with US$1.76 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," BCG said.

Still, the sum was more than 40 percent below the US$3.3 trillion registered over the same period in 2021, BCG said.

More than 60 percent 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 percent to US$375 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.

Britain remained the biggest M&A market in Europe, although the value of deals there decreased by 35 percent. It also declined by 58 percent in Spain and 29 percent in France, the study showed.

By contrast, the value of activity in the Netherlands surged by 263 percent and in Switzerland by 109 percent. Germany was up 45 percent, Italy 28 percent and the Nordics 31 percent, BCG said. The deal value in the Asia-Pacific region fell 19 percent to a 10-year low of US$284 billion.

REUTERS