The global economy may look ugly from the outside, but internally there are signs of life, particularly in deal making and lending.
Though cooling off in the most recent quarter, merger and acquisition activity remains strong for the year—in fact, the best since the world was locked within the suffocating confines of the financial crisis in 2008.
For the year, global M&A volume stands at $2.18 trillion, a 9 percent growth over the same period in 2010, according to Dealogic.
In the US specifically, volume stands at $819.1 billion, which is the highest for the first three quarters since 2008, which saw volume of $926.2 billion. The 2011 figure is 21 percent ahead of last year’s number.
Emerging market M&A also has been strong though down some from last year. The total so far for this year is $552 billion, which is off 13 percent from 2010 but still good enough for second place in the global rankings.
Of course, the downside to these numbers is that activity tailed off significantly in the third quarter.
Global M&A was off 19 percent compared to last year’s third-quarter total, while the decline was 9 percent in the US.
Loan volume also shows an increase in activity.
While individuals and small businesses continued their struggle to gain access to financing, corporations have been borrowing up a storm.
Globally, syndicated loan volume has totaled $2.73 trillion in 2011, up 33 percent from 2011. In the US, volume is at $1.3 trillion, a full 70 percent from the same period last year.
That’s been a boon for investing banks, which have raked in $13.1 billion in revenue from syndicated loans. The total represents nearly a quarter of all IB revenue for the year.
Who’s been the bookrunning leader? JPMorgan Chase , of course, with an 11.3 percent share of the market, while Bank of America Merrill Lynch has 9.7 percent of the market. In terms of revenue, though, BofAML has a narrow lead with $1.5 billion so far.
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