Xiaomo executives shout that global mergers and acquisitions may welcome a “record year”: the final months are expected to concentrate on volume, pointing to a historical peak of 5.3 trillion US dollars

The Zhitong Finance App learned that despite growing market concerns about the economic outlook, Dorothy Blessing, co-head of J.P. Morgan's global investment banking business, said that mergers and acquisitions and IPOs are expected to be concentrated in the last months of 2026, driving the scale of transactions to new heights throughout the year.

In an interview on Wednesday, Blessing said, “We do think this year is expected to be a record year, both in terms of mergers and acquisitions and overall financing.”

According to compiled data, total global transactions increased by about 30% year-on-year in the first half of this year, reaching 2.6 trillion US dollars. If the statistics were broadened to data from some agencies, this figure was as high as 2.8 trillion US dollars, an increase of 48% over the previous year. The current all-time peak of $5.3 trillion was recorded in 2021.

“Strategic mergers and acquisitions will continue to heat up, and the core issues of corporate boards will always revolve around growth,” Blessing said.

This boom is no accident. 2025 is already a groundbreaking year — the annual scale of global mergers and acquisitions reached US$5.1 trillion, an increase of 42% over the previous year, the second highest since 20 years after 2021; of these, 71 “super transactions” exceeding US$10 billion reached a total scale of US$1.5 trillion, a record high.

Entering 2026, momentum was further amplified: 38 10-billion deals were reached in the first half of the year alone, breaking historical records within any half-year period. Goldman Sachs judged from its mid-year outlook that the current M&A cycle has only reached its fourth year, and “there is still plenty of room for growth.”

Private equity has also returned to activity. At the beginning of the year, the pace of fund withdrawal was slow due to high valuations of most of the investment portfolio and insufficient market willingness to accept them. However, Blessing said that once they are convinced that the deal is possible, some funds are re-engaging with the M&A and IPO markets.

Judging from the data, private equity fund trading volume and transaction volume increased by nearly 2 times and 86%, respectively, in the first half of the year, but overall exit activities still fell 9% year on year. Exit channels are clearly divided: M&A withdrawals still account for 70%, but momentum has declined, and the number of transactions fell 16% year over year; while IPO withdrawals picked up sharply, up 50% year on year. PricewaterhouseCoopers anticipates that the release of backlog demand from private equity is expected to bring new transaction supply to the market in the second half of the year and beyond.

However, there are also concerns in the market. The bearers cite uncertain factors such as the Iran conflict, rising energy prices, inflationary pressure, and trade policies to question whether the current boom in trade can continue.

Blessing, on the other hand, believes that business executives are well aware of the challenges. She said, “In the board discussions we participated in, the executives did not turn a blind eye to the complexity of the operating environment and business area. The key is how to review the current situation in the strategic agenda and overcome these uncertainties.”