Global M&A market activity remains subdued as emerging economy bids falls back

Global M&A activity for the third quarter has risen against 2009, with the European and US markets seeing marked increases in deal volume over the period.

A total of 2,599 deals worth a combined $512.4bn (£322bn) were announced during the last quarter, up from 2,421 deals worth $321.3bn (£202bn) during the same period last year, according to the latest figures from Legal Week's exclusive data provider Mergermarket.

While recent deals such as International Power's $27bn (£17bn) bid for GDF Suez Energy International – which saw Clifford Chance (CC) act for International Power while Linklaters and Bredin Prat were instructed for GDF – helped buoy the European markets, the statistics demonstrate a levelling out of the market in the Asian, African and Middle Eastern economies after a surge in activity earlier in the year.

Allen & Overy (A&O) global co-head of corporate Andrew Ballheimer (pictured) said: "There was plenty of excitement over the summer when a number of high-profile deals closed, but no-one is getting carried away. Some of these had been on the cards for a while but hadn't completed because of continued economic uncertainty."

By contrast, the buyout markets are seeing a continued revival, contributing 410 deals worth a total $69.9bn (£44bn) during Q3 – a jump from the 358 deals worth $24.4bn (£15.4bn) in Q3 2009.

The results place Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer top of the rankings after advising on 20 private equity buyouts in Europe since the beginning of the year, totalling $11.4bn (£7.2bn).

Slaughter and May private equity head Jeff Twentyman said: "It is difficult to know what to read into Q4 based on the Q3 results, as most of the work that we've seen in Q3 was in preparation in Q2, so you still have to wait and see what comes to fruition. There is quite a lot of talk at the moment about increasing M&A, but it is against a slow comparative period."

Slaughters took a role on the largest deal of the quarter, the $41.9bn (£26.4bn) hostile bid for fertilizer company PotashCorp by BHP Billiton. The magic circle firm advised BHP, alongside Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton and Blake Cassels & Graydon.

The deal sees Slaughters climb to the top of the UK rankings by value; however, DLA Piper tops the UK tables by volume advising on 75 deals worth $17.2bn (£10.8bn) to date this year.

DLA also tops the global volume tables but comes second to Linklaters in the European volume rankings, with the latter advising on 131 deals worth a total $100.9bn (£63bn).