The first quarter of 2022 was not a good period for mergers and acquisitions. According to a report by S&P Global, in the first three months of this year the value of transactions fell by nearly a third compared to the first quarter of 2021, totaling just US$691.500 million. The so-called megadeals—those worth more than US$5,000 million—fell dramatically, from US$417,000 million to US$284,000 million. Inflation fears and the Russian invasion of Ukraine are two of the main factors behind the decline, according to S&P Global. 

The sectors that stood out in the first three months of 2022 were communications services, with transactions totaling US$126.5 billion; and the real estate sector, with US$120.5 billion. In the first quarter of 2021 , the financial sector and the information technology.

By geographic region, most of the operations took place in the U.S. and Canada, followed far behind by Europe. In Latin America and the Caribbean, transactions totaled US$12.4 billion in transactions in the first quarter of 2022, down 34% from the same period in 2021. 

Sectors with the highest M&A activity(in thousands of US$ million)

Source: S&P Global