M&A activity fell significantly in November, reflecting the paralyzed credit markets and an accelerating global recession, according to a report from Robert W. Baird & Co. Inc. Global M&A deal value fell 68.2% month-over-month, while U.S. deal value fell 86.1%.
 
Year-to-date, global transactions were down 15.8%, and dollar volume is down 38.4% from the year-ago period. Global middle-market transactions represented 40.4% of total year-to-date deal count.
 
Year-to-date, U.S. transactions are down 22.8% from the year-ago period, and dollar volume was down 38.3%.
 
Strategic buyers are now dominating the M&A landscape, representing 83% of total global deal volume. According to Baird, well-capitalized strategics are taking advantage of the current environment and are consolidating their respective industry while achieving scale and better market positions, which has also led to an uptick in hostile activity. Financial buyers are suffering from the credit crunch and are unable to access capital for traditional leveraged buyouts.
 
Emerging markets, such as China and India, have shown some resilience, according to Baird; year-to-date, China M&A dollar volume is up 31.1% and India’s deal volume is up 9.2%. Still, the two countries saw declines month-over-month.
 
More details here.