Transactional lawyers across Europe are breathing a tentative sigh of relief over increasing signs that the gears of corporate dealmaking may finally be starting to turn.
Growing economic stability and a loosening of the credit markets has seen M&A activity in Europe, which in 2009 had slumped to its lowest level in more than a decade, start to recover in earnest. Buoyed by some bumper deals—such as U.K. telecom giant Vodafone Group Plc’s $130 billion sale of its 45 percent stake in Verizon Wireless to Verizon Communications Inc.—the aggregate value of announced M&A transactions involving Eurozone-based companies rose more than 30 percent to $284.5 billion in the first three quarters of 2013, according to the latest data from Mergermarket Ltd. European M&A totaled $156.3 billion in the third quarter of 2013—a 42 percent increase over the same period the previous year—with cross-border activity hitting a 15-month high of $101.1 billion.
