Global M&A is booming, but tie-ups between UK companies are running at the slowest pace since at least 1969.
UK domestic M&A (UK companies buying other UK companies) amounted to just 31 deals in the third quarter, according to data from the Office for National Statistics. That's the lowest quarterly tally since the ONS began compiling data more than four decades ago, writes Joel Lewin.
In the first three quarters, the number of deals edged up from last year to 98. However, that is far shy of the 222 deals struck in the same period of 2011, and is well behind the level of activity seen in 2010 and 2009.
The value of deals has fallen 22 per cent year-on-year to £5bn.
But it's not just UK companies that have been overcome by a bout of home-grown M&A aversion in Blighty. Acquisitions of UK companies by overseas partners fell 53 per cent year-to-date to £15bn, the lowest volume since 2003.
But while UK companies have turned their noses up at their fellow countrymen, they have been snapping up overseas companies at the fastest pace in five years.
Acquisitions of overseas companies by UK companies in the first three quarters surged 150 per cent to £22.1bn, the largest volume since 2010.
Globally, M&A volume stood at $4.57tn at the end of November, and looks set to surpass the record $4.61tn set in 2007.