The volume of announced deals involving UK targets in the first two quarters of the year fell 68.6% compared to the same period last year, leading to the quietest start to a calendar year for dealmaking since 2009.

Regional dealmakers remain cautious about the prospects of an M&A recovery in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). Nonetheless, in spite of fears surrounding a second wave of the pandemic, activity is reigniting in selected sectors, albeit under "new normal" conditions.

The CEE region saw a healthy level of dealmaking prior to the outbreak of coronavirus, but saw a fall in March as M&A across Europe began to slow. The region saw a clear decline by value, although fared better than other parts of Europe, while the deal count fell to its lowest point in several years.

Energy, mining and utilities are three sectors uniquely exposed to geopolitical instability. While this creates fertile ground for smart deal making, it also disrupts the natural flow of transactions, and contributed to 2019 being one of the least active years since 2013.

The course of true love never did run smooth, and neither has the on-again, off-again interest of private equity in the renewable energy space.

The boundaries of investment mandates are in flux. Dealspeak takes a look at how last week's USD 4bn  investment by KKR [NYSE:KKR] and Blackrock’s [NYSE:BX] infrastructure funds to acquire 40% of ADNOC’s midstream assets to find out a little more.

The gold mining sector is littered with junior miners and single-mine companies that, in a previous era, might have been acquired by majors as soon as they made a big discovery, obtained a key permit, or entered project financing to build their mine

Energy businesses, particularly those involved in exploring for oil and gas, are facing a challenging and turbulent M&A environment to start 2019.

A spate of privatisations across Arab nations provided a backdrop to an otherwise muted year of mergers and acquisitions within MENA as the region reached USD 24.2bn across 118 deals. Mergermarket discusses drivers expected to guide M&A throughout 2019.

• Improving GDP prompts deal confidence
• 2018 M&A transactions highest on record
• Deals expected in TMT, energy and health sectors

This September marked the one-year anniversary when 12 major shareholders in US shale oil and gas producers met in Manhattan to discuss ways to turn fracking operations from cash burners into cash distributors. In the following months since that clandestine meeting, the very same shareholders, including Invesco Ltd., Macquarie Group and others, pressed executives to curtail capital expenditures and instead use that cash to reward investors with dividends and share buybacks.

• Valuation decrease a strong possibility
• Banking and retail particularly exposed to political risk
• Food and retail sectors to retain interesting margins

• Positive lending environment opens doors for deals
• Protectionist measures could threaten larger transactions
• IPO market upbeat after successful flurry in 1H18

• Energy, consumer and retail among the most active sectors
• Valuation gap and worries over macroeconomics impact deal-making