M&A value reached US$3.05trn during the first 10 months of 2018, putting it in position to surpass the totals of each of the last two years.
Deals targeting companies in North America represented about 58% of the global total by value in October. That figure more than triples the percentage of any other global region.
Deal value in Europe represented a meager 15.8% of the global total in October, narrowly trailing Asia-Pacific (minus Japan), which had 16.2% of the total.
The two top performing sectors in October were Technology & Energy and Mining & Utilities. IBM’s US$32.5bn acquisition of software provider Red Hat is the year’s largest tech deal, to date.
The energy industry is seeing natural gas prices that have spiked to a four-year high just ahead of the winter heating season and with supplies in storage as their lowest level since 2005.
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