A total of 969 deals were announced globally during the week ended May 31, 2020, which is a decrease of 5.9% over 1,030 deals announced during the previous week, according to GlobalData’s deals database.

Aurojyoti Bose, Lead Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Global deal activity has remained inconsistent due to volatile market conditions since the COVID-19 outbreak and this is the second consecutive week of decline in deal volume. The number of deals announced during the week was also lower than the Q1 2020 and April 2020 weekly average levels.”

Deal activity has also remained inconsistent across geographies since the COVID-19 outbreak. Deal volume declined in markets such as the US (by 22.6%), China (30.6%), the UK (25.6%), Canada (4.2%) and India (22.0%) during the week ended May 31, 2020 compared to the previous week. Meanwhile, Australia and Japan witnessed growth in the number of announced deals by 62.8% and 45.2%, respectively.

Deal activity in sectors such as retail, healthcare (including pharmaceuticals and medical equipment) and travel & tourism also declined during the week ended May 31, 2020 compared to the previous week.

Deal types such as venture financing, licensing agreement and equity offerings witnessed decline in deal volume by 13.7%, 15.4% and 18.2%, respectively during the week ended May 31, 2020 compared to the previous week, while the number of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), private equity and partnership deals increased by 3.2%, 13.5% and 7.5%, respectively.