Horror of Lehman's fall haunts global M&A

According Dealogic, in the 12-month period from October 2008 global announced M&A stood at $ 2.17 trillion, down 39 per cent from $ 3.58 trillion in the previous year. Global M&A activities, which reached its nadir on July 2008, witnessed a huge erosion both in terms of value as well a volume in the year 2009. The global M&A for August 2009 ($ 119.8 billion) was the lowest monthly value since September 2003 ($117.5 billion).

The report further stated that the deal size, too, has became significantly small in the last 12 months, thus highlighting the slowing market for large deals. Besides, the number of distressed M&A transactions has also grown to record highs across all regions, the report added.