Mergermarket’s global mergers and acquisitions (M&A) roundup for 2020 has revealed that $847.2 billion was spent on European assets in 2020 across 6,658 deals, representing a 5.6% rise by value versus the $802.3 billion of 2019.

“This was largely due to the recovery seen in the second half, with USD 552.7bn recorded in 2H20 – 87.7% higher than the USD 294.5bn seen in the first six months of 2020,” said Mergermarket.

Europe saw its share of global deal value increase to 26.8% from to 23.7% while registering a small decline in overall deal count.

“Foreign investment into Europe represented 37.8% of the total European value and 15.4% of the volume, representing its lowest value share since 2015 and lowest volume share since 2009,” added Mergermarket.

“European technology M&A has reached USD 119.5bn across 1,230 deals, surging to its highest annual value on Mergermarket record.

“A total of USD 205.2bn was spent by private equity firms in Europe in 2020 across 1,415 deals, representing the highest annual value since 2007.

“As a result, private equity buyouts accounted for a 24.2% share of the total European M&A value in 2020 and 21.3% of the total annual deal count, representing its highest share by both value and volume since 2006.”