M&A activity in Europe may have declined by 37 per cent on last year, but there are still deals to be made in the financial and energy sectors, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

M&A activity in Europe may have declined by 37 per cent on last year, but there are still deals to be made in the financial and energy sectors, according to data from Thomson Reuters.

Deals in the financial sector and recently liberalised energy market have registered the smallest annual declines this year, with drops of 1 per cent and 11 per cent respectively, and these markets could remain strong next year.

Paulo Pereira, London-based partner at boutique investment bank Perella Weinberg, commented: “There is a lot of restructuring in the corporate landscape to be done in Europe that has already happened in the US. Whole sectors of the economy in Europe, for example, were only liberalised in the late 1990s.” Pereira added that energy and telecommunications were clear examples.

“Twenty years ago, large companies like Deutsche Telekom and Deutsche Post were in state hands and were not active in M&A in any material way,” he added.

Craig Coben, European head of equity capital markets at Merrill Lynch, added: “There could be a lot of consolidation across many sectors as stronger firms capitalise on opportunities arising from the market dislocation.”