Blog
February 18, 2019
Americas M&A Update: Q1 2019
What do you need to know about Americas M&A in Q1 2019? Mark Williams summarizes key trends impacting current M&A state of play.
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Blog
February 07, 2019
Merrill Insight Audio Discussion with Mary Duffy – Global Head of M&A, AIG
Every year, AIG publishes what is considered by many the standard report in M&A deal insurance around representation and warranties. Mary Duffy, Global Head of M&A at AIG, provides us with an overview of the key facts and figure in this discussion.
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Blog
January 24, 2019
The 5 Success Factors for M&A Due Diligence in 2019
Due diligence is more advanced and efficient than it has ever been, but how much more improved could the process become? Merrill Corporation asked 539 M&A professionals from across Europe, Africa and the Middle East (EMEA), what their expectations were for the future of EMEA M&A in the Digital Age. The findings are interesting, to say the least.
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Blog
December 20, 2018
New England Groundview: Corporates "Always on the Run"
In this latest Groundview installment, we ask Miguel Gomez what key due diligence and M&A trends he's seeing on the ground in New England, and how clients are using DatasiteOne to get ahead of the competition.
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Blog
December 20, 2018
New York Groundview: Donald's state of mind
What trends are driving M&A and due diligence in the New York City market? We ask Donald Davis, head of our advisory team, what conversations are taking place in the local market.
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Blog
December 12, 2018
Your Questions Answered - Bonus Q&A from our Industrials M&A Panel
Where will most divestitures come from next year? Is R&W Insurance worth the time and money? What makes an attractive target for mid-to-large private equity firms? These are some of the additional audience questions we tackled in the follow up to our lively Industrials M&A Video panel.
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Blog
December 12, 2018
Six Sure-fire Steps to Career Dominance
Everyone’s got advice – your grandpa, your neighbor, your taxi driver, your mom… it’s non-stop. When it comes to building your career, isn’t it time to kill the noise and go straight to someone who has been there, done that and made bank? That’s what Merrill Corporation thought, so we assembled an all-star panel of dealmakers for a Merrill Insight™ Live breakfast focused on Turbo Charging Your Wall Street Career.
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Blog
December 10, 2018
DatasiteOne - Trusted partner by EY to help you secure deal success
Hear how Ernst & Young Solutions LLP partnered with Merrill to overcome some of their biggest due diligence challenges.
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Blog
December 06, 2018
The DAK Group Experience: How Merrill DatasiteOne helped the firm streamline their due diligence process
We recently caught up with Ari Fuchs, Director at The DAK Group, to ask about his experience with Merrill DatasiteOne. Hear what he has to say.
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Blog
November 08, 2018
Navigate use cases of DatasiteOne in Japan
Ryusuke Okada, Director and Managing Executive Officer of Takara Printing Co., Ltd. in Japan, spoke with Merrill recently and shared how Merrill DatasiteOne offers outstanding features, making it much more than a basic VDR. Hear how Takara discovered many potential use cases for DatasiteOne, apart from being an important solution for M&A for their customers.
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Blog
November 01, 2018
Texas Groundview: Private Equity Hold 'em
Find out why energy deals are so data-intensive and more in this installment of our Groundview series, which provides local takes on the M&A and due diligence market from senior Merrill representatives. In this blog, Nicholas Renter discusses the state of the Texas M&A market, new mineral trends, and some of the quirks of conducting due diligence in the energy sector.
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Blog
October 31, 2018
To DueDiligence2022 and beyond: How changes in technology will impact ‘the deal’
Whether M&A is part of an organisations growth strategy or is taking place as a one-off transaction, the pressure to be efficient in deal-making is forcing companies to look for new ways to manage the due diligence process. Many are using technology and new project management techniques to manage the due diligence process in an organised, smart way so that they can focus on what really matters—running their business. Due diligence has evolved and improved thanks in large part to the advance of technology and digitisation. But if today due diligence is more advanced and efficient than in the past, how much more advanced and efficient could the process be in the future?
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Blog
October 17, 2018
Is FIRRMA the next GDPR? And 7 other takeaways from our October 4 TMT panel
“Transactions that involve cross border and CFIUS issues are going to cost more, they are going to extend the regulatory approval cycles and it will keep the lawyers busy,” Jim Ackerman, Vice President of Corporate Development for Flex Ltd, predicts during our Merrill Insight Video panel Hot or Hype? Trends in Technology M&A. Here are 7 other top takeaways from our October 4 live-video panel.
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Blog
October 04, 2018
NY Groundview: Bill's Top 4 Diligence hacks
Merrill knows how important local expertise is - that's why we have representatives in offices throughout North America. In this series, we ask our top representatives what local-specific M&A issues they're hearing about. Bill Polese gives his view of common diligence pain points in the New York corporate market and local M&A trends he's seeing.
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Blog
September 24, 2018
Merrill DatasiteOne enables a financial advisor in Japan to take deal-making to a whole new level
Yoichi Arai, Representative Director of Hongo Tsuji Business Consulting in Japan, spoke with Merrill recently and shared how DatasiteOne exceeds his expectations.
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Blog
September 19, 2018
Fast. Simple. Secure. Unlocking productivity in M&A due diligence
Thanks to a revolutionary architecture, DatasiteOne’s project engineers and development team are moving faster than ever, rapidly creating and delivering new features and functions that unlock productivity across the due diligence lifecycle.
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Blog
September 19, 2018
You're in control: Intuitive service tools empower seamless due diligence
Because of DatasiteOne’s intuitive interface, we can quickly onboard clients to the new application. Our introductory planning calls/demos are taking less time and we’re even seeing a decline in the number of requested onboarding calls. This means clients are getting started quickly without a significant learning curve.
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Blog
September 19, 2018
Painting a vision for insight and analytics in due diligence technology
When we launched Merrill DatasiteOne and established a new dimension for applications that address the due diligence phase in a transaction, we were stunned by the state of reporting and analytics amongst virtual data room providers.
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Blog
September 14, 2018
Merrill Insight™ | 5 ways AI is shaking up the job market (and how to use it to your advantage)
“AI is a lot like the Iron Man suit – it takes a human and makes them more powerful,” says Joanna Riley in this interview discussing how artificial intelligence (AI) is fundamentally changing the way companies identify and recruit talent – and what it means for job seekers.
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Blog
September 05, 2018
Merrill Insight™ | 9 things would-be venture capitalists should know
Shruti Gandhi, founder and managing partner at Array Ventures, joines Merrill Insight Audio for a podcast focused on on investments in big data, tech trends and the excitement of venture capital. Array was founded three years ago, and just sold one of its first investments in a fraud-prevention technology called Simility, to Paypal for $120m cash.
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Blog
August 31, 2018
Buzzed out? Real life impact of AI, big data and machine learning
Listen to business technology expert Shruti Gandhi, co-founder of Array Ventures, describe the real-world applications of tech buzzwords like artificial intelligence.
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Blog
August 22, 2018
View from the Bay: trend-spotting in M&A's epicenter
West Coast technology remains the epicenter of upcoming deal activity, according to the latest Deal Drivers. But what are the local topics Bay Area deal-makers are discussing? Merrill DataSite Senior Director Shelle Martin discusses what she's hearing on the ground.
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Blog
August 17, 2018
Suit and Tie
Prospects often ask, “Why do we need services like DatasiteOne? Don’t FTP protocols work well, or even other lower end Virtual Deal Room providers get the same job done?"
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Blog
August 03, 2018
A day in the life of Merrill Service: Meet Caroline
Meet DatasiteOne project manager Caroline Garrido; our gym loving, passionate dedicated Merrill Service team member who support clients through their due diligence process.
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Blog
July 31, 2018
Small, medium or large? Ask these 6 questions to find out what’s right for you.
One of the questions professionals ask throughout their career is what are the differences between working at a small, medium or large shop. Ultimately, however, the most important thing in deciding where to take your career is understanding how your own personality and work preferences should guide your choice of employer size.
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Blog
July 25, 2018
Record deal values come in a world full of contradiction
Global M&A activity reached unprecedented new heights in the first half of 2018 -- an H1 record US$1.93trn, more than a 25% jump YoY. Those eye-popping numbers were fueled, in part, by Takeda Pharmaceutical’s US$79.7bn acquisition of Shire, Cigna’s US$67.8bn takeover of Express Scripts, and T-Mobile’s US$58.9bn deal for Sprint.
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Blog
July 23, 2018
Home Healthcare Services provide an enticing opportunity during healthcare boom
The healthcare sector is currently one of the busiest in the IPO market because a robust 84% of Fortune 50 companies are currently involved in healthcare. That means there is plenty of ripe opportunity for savvy dealmakers and investors. Our recent webinar, Merrill Insight™ Video: Healthcare Spotlight, Merrill Corporation talked to a global panel of experts and polled dealmaking professionals on key topics.
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Blog
July 20, 2018
M&A to become 3D chess game, head of Lazard shareholder advisory says
Shareholder activism is going mainstream, and even mid-performing companies need to be prepared. Preparation is no longer a poison pill; however, instead it's deep understanding of avenues of attack and a willingness to work with shareholders and not against them.
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Blog
July 17, 2018
Merrill Sales – Transforming a 50-Year Old Company from the Front
Merrill Corporation is transforming, from its technology to its sales team -- and Selling Power magazine shares the full story in its July 2018 issue.
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Blog
July 03, 2018
Listing on the HKSE - fad or future?
Following the loosening of listing criteria on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, a number of US and Asia companies are talking to advisers about raising capital and gaining more visibility. Learn more by listening to our panelists discuss during our recent Healthcare M&A Video.
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Blog
July 02, 2018
Shareholder activism, an NYC rooftop and DatasiteOne
Guests mingled on a perfect NYC summer night for the NYC DatasiteOne product launch event June 21st. Prior to moving to the rooftop, clients listened to Pulitzer Prize winner Dennis Berman interview Jim Rossman, head of Lazard's activist shareholder division, about how company's can best prepare for shareholder activists.
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Blog
June 29, 2018
What policies can increase antibiotics investment and why does it matter?
The live audience from our recent healthcare video sent in some really great questions. Kimberly Ha, one of our panelists, answers one of them on how to stimulate antibiotic R&D research, in this blog.
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Blog
June 28, 2018
BriaCell’s Williams answers your biotech investment questions
Dr. Bill Williams, CEO of BriaCell Therapeutics, discusses funding immunotherapy, why Biopharma is outperforming all other VC sectors and what's contributing to the returns.
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Blog
June 27, 2018
Robust global growth, plenty of capital, stabilizing geopolitics gives buyers confidence
M&A dealmaking totals tallied US$1.69trn for the first five months of the year, thanks in part to a strong May where deal value jumped 82.2% YoY. May's top transaction, by value, was Japanese pharma company Takeda purchasing Irish drugmaker Shire for US$79.7bn. Heading into the summer, M&A is filled with a sense of optimism.
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Blog
June 26, 2018
Almirall's Sabé on critical thinking, corporate challenges and why he left banking
As part of our ongoing Merrill Insight™ conversations with senior M&A professionals, we interviewed Jordi Sabé, SVP Corp Dev at Almirall, about his career.
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Blog
June 25, 2018
Keeping ahead of the due diligence regulatory storm
Regulatory compliance continues to be an ongoing concern for many companies. This is especially true for compliance departments at banker/advisor organizations where even the hint of impropriety between the deal side of the business, and the trading side of the business, can earn the ire of federal regulators that are on the lookout for unethical business practices. Two new data room technology tools assist with the challenge of ensuring recordkeeping compliance with SEC regulations during your M&A transactions.
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Blog
May 30, 2018
Eliminating document language barriers in M&A due diligence
Merrill DatasiteOne now features multiple language OCR and search, helping reduce the risks and stresses of comprehensive due diligence. Already, 12% of projects in DatasiteOne include two or more administrators working in different countries, making multiple language OCR and search a vital new tool.
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Blog
May 24, 2018
Megadeals are heating up, just in time for summer
This year has started with a spate of megadeals — and the pace of these mammoth combinations only quickened last month. Private equity and international M&A both had a lackluster month, but M&A value in 2018 remains on track to nearly match the highest amount ever, US$3.87tn, reached in 2015.
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Blog
May 23, 2018
Merrill DatasiteOne wows attendees at Singapore launch event
Merrill Singapore organized a panel discussion on April 26, 2018, and engaged the startup ecosystem to deliberate on Fundraising Due Diligence – a topic that every startup would have to embrace along its business development journey. The conversation took place at the WeWork’s coworking space in Singapore and attracted about 80 delegates representing views from startups, investors, advisors and enablers.
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Blog
May 22, 2018
Top takeaways from our latest Merrill Insight™ Video
What do dealmakers really think about GDPR, leverage ratios and how to get a good ROI? Find out what our 600-strong live global audience said about the M&A market outlook, leverage ratios, ROI and GDPR during our private equity-focused webinar Merrill Insight™ | Mining Opportunity, Navigating Risk.
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Blog
May 03, 2018
Deal value highest of any Q1 on record, cross-border value dip warrants caution
Multiple megadeals results in chart-topping deal value and strong growth on the domestic front comes at the expense of cross-boarder value. Plus, private equity has been charging ahead with buyers increasingly super-sizing acquisitions and historic US tax-cuts keeps North America as the top destination for deals.
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Blog
May 01, 2018
Disruptive Technology: 4 trends uncovered at Merrill DatasiteOne launch event
Rory Cellan-Jones, a technology journalist for BBC News, was our headline speaker at our recent London-based launch events for our new application for due diligence, Merrill DatasiteOne. He was our headline speaker and unveiled to the invitation-only audience the four tech trends that have proven to continually disrupt fast-growing technologies.
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Blog
April 25, 2018
7 ways to improve deal success
In the M&A world, saying integration is critical to a successful deal outcome is a bit like saying the sky is blue. But when asked how to turn common wisdom into practice many dealmakers draw a blank.
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Blog
April 24, 2018
DatasiteOne. Update One. Dashboard One.
Historically, due diligence professionals have relied on downloadable reports with additional spreadsheet manipulation to understand deal status. The Merrill DatasiteOne dashboard provides this data out of the box and in a graphically enticing format.
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Blog
April 24, 2018
GDPR Readiness Survey 2018
The EU General Data Protection Regulation comes into force in May 2018 with a wider scope and higher penalties than existing data protection legislation. Many businesses have yet to assess their compliance with the new GDPR rules.
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Blog
April 20, 2018
6 GDPR compliance items Merrill helps you to check off your list
Although the responsibility for your organisations’ GDPR compliance lies with your business, choosing a provider that helps you to check off some the regulatory boxes saves you time and worry.
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Blog
April 19, 2018
Consumer sector continues to grow in strength, bucking trend of general decline
North America contributed 45% of global deal value in February 2018, boosted by General Dynamics's purchase of CSRA, Inc. The consumer sector was second to Energy, Mining & Utilities, but the nearly 15% market share is a strong bounce back from the general decline the industry's share last year. The value of cross-border deals dropped YoY, while domestic deal value surged.
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Blog
April 11, 2018
Merrill Insight™ | Warshaw’s Czepiel on Secrets of Successful Dealmaking
Starting at Skadden Arps when M&A was a relatively new and growing practice area, Lori Anne Czepiel was often the only woman on the deal team. In this Q&A, Lori Anne tells us how she navigated her early years as a M&A lawyer, best practices for dealmakers and the advantages of serving the middle-market.
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Blog
April 10, 2018
What's the Big SaaS Deal? 4 Ways our New Merrill DatasiteOne Platform Impacts your Day-to-Day
This March, two major Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) events hit the M&A world. Salesforce snapped up SaaS integration provider MuleSoft for $6.5B and Merrill Corporation announced the launch of Merrill DatasiteOne, the first SaaS application for due diligence.
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Blog
April 05, 2018
Four takeaways from our Merrill Insight Insurance Spotlight: Infographic
More than 300 insurance professionals recently attended a webinar focused on insurance M&A for the year ahead, answering four polling questions along the way. We’ve compiled their responses into a single infographic.
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Blog
March 30, 2018
6 ways to impress your boss
In the cut-throat world of M&A, your data room provider can make an outsized impact on deal success. Pick Merrill DatasiteOne and be a stand-out.
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Blog
March 28, 2018
7 ways to win a deal besides price
With the recent launch of our new Merrill DatasiteOne due diligence app, we’ve been thinking hard about other ways dealmakers can gain a competitive edge in today’s frothy market. Here’s what US and EMEA M&A experts told us about how they’re navigating the tricky shoals of demanding sellers and high deal valuations.
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Blog
February 23, 2018
Merrill Spotlight: M&A Market sweetens, but do wrinkles remain?
Following the passage of the US tax bill, M&A experts are more optimistic than ever about the US deal environment. However, dealmakers warn that high valuations, buy-side competition and antitrust issues will continue to pose challenges.
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Blog
February 22, 2018
Corporate Development 2018 Outlook and Trends: Infographic
More than 1400 professionals across the globe recently attended a webinar focused on corporate development opportunities for the year ahead, answering six polling questions along the way. Survey responses reflect a wide range of industries and sectors, and we’ve compiled the most intriguing data into a single infographic.
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Blog
February 21, 2018
Merrill Spotlight: Cargill's Peter Hawthorne on Working Across Cultures
A conversation with Cargill's Peter Hawthorne on life, leadership and how he hires.
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Blog
January 25, 2018
Merrill Corporation Q&A – 2018 Private Equity Outlook
What does the private equity pipeline look like for next year? Get answers from our Global Head of Strategic Advisor Accounts in this recent Q&A session.
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Blog
January 25, 2018
Navigate Asia FinTech
Apart from the marriage of the two words “finance” and “technology”, what does FinTech really entail? To many, it is still an insurmountable task to look beyond the word and scope out elements that would succinctly define FinTech.
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Blog
January 25, 2018
December deal making boosts 2017 M&A activity with five mega deals
December deal making helped to give the year’s M&A activity a boost, with five mega deals contributing almost $200 billion in value. This surge in December gave an overall boost to the market. A total of 18,443 deals worth $3.2 trillion were announced globally during 2017, reflecting a 3% drop in value year-on-year. Merrill Vice President Matt Ellis takes a closer look at the trends marking the final month of 2017.
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Blog
January 19, 2018
Global M&A due diligence times drop, but why?
Deal duration times fell by an astonishing 17.6 percent to a 6.1 month average in 2017 from 7.4 months in 2014. We help you try to understand why in this blog post.
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Blog
January 16, 2018
A digital transformation needed for Oil & Gas sector
As the agenda in the developed world begins to shift under increasing public pressure to acknowledge and react to environmental concerns, the Oil & Gas industry sees itself facing many challenges and increasing opportunities.
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Blog
January 15, 2018
What to expect for M&A in 2018
M&A activity at the start of 2017 was lacklustre and, although momentum picked up towards the end of the year, global M&A volumes were at their lowest since 2013. Despite this, rumours and announcements of high-profile acquisitions, rising deal values and an increase in strategic acquisitions made 2017 a banner year for M&A activity and gave investors, consumers and journalists plenty to talk about.
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Blog
December 19, 2017
Asia-Pacific, North America are strongest regional M&A performers during November 2017
As the year’s M&A activity looks to be drawing to a slow close, two regions saw an increase in deal value YoY. Asia (excluding Japan) saw 312 deals worth US$62.8bn, while Central and South America saw 32 deals valued at US$6.8bn. The top performing sector for the quarter was Energy, Mining & Utilities (EMU).