Global merger and acquisition activity – often a major driver of liquidity events that wealth managers need to be aware of – reached the third-highest level ($2.486 trillion) on record in the third quarter of this year.

Global merger and acquisition activity – often a major driver of liquidity events that wealth managers need to be aware of – reached the third-highest level ($2.486 trillion) on record in the third quarter of this year, according to Mergermarket. (Mergermarket is a sister organisation to Wealthmonitor, which has provided data for this publication.)

The third-quarter figure was 11.7 per cent above 2013’s annual total ($ 2.224 trillion).

Every quarter during 2014 has topped corresponding quarterly values in every other year since 2007. The third quarter’s $877.4 billion-worth of deals was the second highest valued quarter post-2007 after Q2 2014, and up 35.1 per cent compared to Q3 2013.

Europe saw the most deals above $10 billion since 2007, and in Asia where deals are historically smaller, the region saw the most deals above $2 billion on record.

Private equity buyout activity in Q3 dropped below $ 90 billion for the first time this year but the $89.3 billion-worth of deals didn’t hinder the year-to-date value of $277.9 billion surpassing 2013 by 20 per cent.