Large-scale M&A deals fuelled global activity in 2025, improving share prices, but targeted scale will be critical for the year ahead, according to WTW.
WTW’s latest Quarterly Deal Performance Monitor found 726 global mergers and acquisitions were completed over the past 12 months.
After a pandemic-induced lull, deals over US$100 million rose 2 per cent from 710 in 2024, signalling a potential return to pre-pandemic M&A activity.
The report also found that M&A deals now almost match the performance of non-deal companies, underperforming by only -0.5 percentage points compared to -10.9 percentage points in 2024. In addition, 32 per cent of acquirers outpaced the wider market in their share price despite strong equity performance, signalling that well-chosen deals can create real value.
Commenting on the report, produced in partnership with the M&A Research Centre at Bayes Business School, WTW’s head of Asia Pacific M&A Consulting, Max Wright attributed the uptick to a combination of factors.
“Deal activity and overall optimism grew in 2025, fuelled by robust equity markets, relative economic stability, rate reductions and a push to adopt AI,” Wright said.
According to the research house, much of the growth was fuelled by large deals over US$1 billion, which jumped 14 per cent to 201 completed transactions in 2025, up from 177 in 2024. The average global size of large M&A deals also hit a new high of US$2.9 billion in the second half of 2025, a 23 per cent year-on-year increase.
However, Wright warned that while big-ticket deals are propelling the market, they carry high risks and can make it challenging to protect and grow value.
“Major investments grounded in sound strategy have the potential to reshape a business and establish a path for sustained growth. On the other hand, deals that lack a well-defined, strategic objective can become a recipe for value destruction,” he said.
Moreover, the report noted that 2025 M&A activity was far from even, with a strong Q3 gain of +11 percentage points followed by a steep Q4 reversal which left dealmakers with a record quarterly underperformance of -13 percentage points versus the MSCI World Index.
As Wright explained, sudden and unpredictable swings in M&A activity tend to favour larger companies with the scale to withstand such volatility. Looking forward, he argued that targeted scale will remain key as this trend continues.
“With volatility as a continuous challenge, CEOs should be prepared to plan longer timelines, history shows that periods of turbulence can offer the greatest potential to create value,” Wright said.
In 2026, targeted scale will remain key as the market continues to reward larger companies with the capacity to weather sharp and unpredictable swings in M&A activity that have become the new normal for dealmakers, buffeted by persistent geopolitical turbulence.
Zooming in on regional results, WTW found that Asia-Pacific buyers were up by 22 per cent in deal volume, with Chinese buyers rebounding to 64 deals from a record low of 31 in 2024. However, overall performance remained 2.1 percentage points below the regional index.
North American acquirers likewise underperformed by -1.5 percentage points with 348 deals in 2025, compared to -8.7 percentage points and 361 deals in 2024.
Europe was the only region to outperform its regional index for the year by +4.7 percentage points, compared to +0.7 percentage points in 2024. Deals remained steady at 153 for 2025, compared to 155 deals closed the previous year. Meanwhile, British acquirers also outperformed the index by +0.9 percentage points across the 33 deals completed in 2025.
