The first six months of 2024 were the busiest half-year since 2022 for worldwide M&A transactions larger than $10 billion, despite a slowdown in May and June.

There were 17 deals valued over $10 billion announced during the period, with a combined transaction value of $304.58 billion. By both deal count and transaction value it was the busiest period for $10 billion-plus deals since the first half of 2022, which had 18 large deals worth $486.56 billion.

By half-year, the number of large deals has been steadily increasing since a low point in the back half of 2022, when only seven deals with transaction values of $10 billion or higher were announced.

Abu Dhabi National Oil Co.'s (ADNOC) proposed purchase of German polymer producer Covestro AG was June's only deal with a transaction value of at least $10 billion. Covestro management moved to enter into "concrete negotiations" with ADNOC on a transaction with an offer price of €62 per Covestro share, according to a news release.

A single large deal was announced in May as well, following a five-month streak of at least two $10 billion-plus deals announced each month, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data.

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Oil boom

The oil and gas industry accounted for both $10 billion-plus deals announced in the last two months. ConocoPhillips announced it would acquire Marathon Oil Corp. in May.

In the latest deal, Covestro said it had opened its books to ADNOC for confirmatory due diligence in a June 24 release. Morgan Stanley & Co. International PLC is advising ADNOC. Covestro said there is no certainty whether the negotiations will lead to an agreement.

Covestro entered open-ended negotiations with ADNOC in September 2023 and the talks resulted in agreement concerning core aspects of the deal, including support for Covestro's growth strategy, Covestro said.