European and Asia Pacific deals boost share prices in 2025: WTW

By Ashish Tiwari

July 7 - (The Insurer) - European and Asia Pacific dealmakers have seen their share prices outperform their global peers in the first half of 2025, WTW said in a report on Monday.

Globally, WTW said 339 deals worth over $100 million were completed between January and June, above the 332 recorded a year earlier. The number of large deals over $1 billion rose to 82 from 69, although megadeals over $10 billion fell to just three, compared to nine last year.

European acquirers where deals have topped $100 million beat their regional share index by 9.4 percentage points. This marks a turnaround from the same period last year, when dealmakers underperformed by 9.2 points. Deal volume in Europe remained stable at 64 transactions, against the 65 deals completed in the first half of 2024.

Asia Pacific buyers also outperformed their index by 3.9 points. The region recorded 100 deals, up from 69 last year, driven by China, where deal volume nearly tripled from 12 to 33.

Meanwhile, North America had its deal count fall to 160, a 55% drop from the first half of 2021 and down from 187 a year ago. Acquirers underperformed their index by 2.5 points, marking their 10th consecutive quarter of negative returns.

“While M&A in North America faces mounting headwinds, dealmaking thrives in Europe and accelerates in Asia, as buyers adapt to rising market volatility,” said Jana Mercereau, head of Europe M&A consulting at WTW.

The rise in M&A is despite the uncertainty regarding the U.S. trade tariffs. However, "dealmakers in tariff-exposed industries with complex cross-border supply chains may look to localise supply chains to make themselves resilient to the volatile geopolitical backdrop,” Mercereau said.

Telecommunications and materials were the strongest-performing sectors, while cross-sector and sub-$1 billion deals delivered the weakest performance.