M&A boom may signal the top

Mergers and acquisitions deals have reached new heights. But history suggests it won't last.

Recent volatility hasn't dampened the urge to merge. On 9 September alone, $40bn worth of deals were announced worldwide, with a $12bn Hong Kong utility buyout leading the charge. August was the busiest month for mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in American history.

Asian M&A now stands at $700bn for this year, the second-fastest pace for this stage in the cycle on record. Deal making has been strong across the board, with insurers the latest sector in the spotlight. Last week Japan's Mitsui Sumitomo Insurance took over Amlin, a Lloyds of London insurer.

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Andrew Van Sickle
Editor, MoneyWeek

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.