European M&A value tops €1T once again

The uncertain cloud of Brexit hung over the region all year, and antitrust authorities intervened to strike down mega-deals involving companies such as J Sainsbury's and Siemens. But corporate M&A activity in Europe during 2019 remained roughly in line with past years' figures, as deal value topped €1 trillion for the fifth year running.

PitchBook's 2019 Annual European M&A Report has more on all the deals, drama and data that defined the market last year. This edition, sponsored by KPMG, Liberty Global Transaction Solutions and ACG, offers detailed looks into the financial services sector and the Nordics region, as well as numbers and analysis pertaining to several other developing trends in Europe, including:

• Carveout and divestiture activity continues to plummet
• Despite geopolitical uncertainty, M&A value in the UK & Ireland increased year over year
• Take-private deal count sunk to a new decade low