The economic downturn hit completion rates in the second half of the year, according to PwC’s latest Global M&A Trends report.

In total, the UK saw 4,232 deals across 2022, compared to 5,033 for the previous year, a 16% decline. This was broadly consistent with global deal volumes which declined by 17% over the same period. Deal volume for the first half of the year was higher than the second half, with 2,394 UK deals completed in H1 compared to 1,838 in H2.

There was a total of £93.5bn worth of UK deals in H1 of 2022 compared to £51.4bn in H2 bringing the total deal value for the year to £144.9bn. However, this was down 56% compared to the record £332.1bn in 2021.

Lucy Stapleton, head of deals at PwC UK, said: ‘UK M&A activity in 2022 saw contrasting performance across the two halves of the year. In the first six months we saw some of the buoyancy of the second half of 2021 spill over, but as the year developed we saw the political situation exacerbate the volatility in the macroeconomic environment that led to surging inflation, rising interest rates and overall, lots of uncertainty in the market.