The first quarter finished with three pending globally announced M&A deals, each with a value of at least $10 billion, after two such transactions were announced in March.

Since the start of 2018, only the 2022 third quarter had fewer $10 billion-plus deals, at two. While M&A activity remains slow, March produced the largest transaction since May 2022 with Pfizer Inc.'s $42.84 billion announced deal for Seagen Inc., a biotechnology company that develops therapies for treating cancer.

Time to take medicine

The deal between Pfizer and Seagen — two US-based companies — is expected to face antitrust scrutiny, which has been a point of emphasis for President Joe Biden's administration. Still, Pfizer expects the deal to close by late 2023, or early 2024.

"Our technologies and approaches to fighting cancer are really complementary," Douglas Lankler, Pfizer general counsel, said during an investor call to discuss the transaction. "And we think that regulators are going to be able to see the pro-patient, pro-competitive benefit."

The healthcare space is no stranger to large M&A, but the sector has not been immune to the slowdown in deal activity. Since the start of 2022, five global healthcare deals have topped $10 billion in valuation, compared to nine in 2021 alone.

– View transaction statistics across all sectors. – Read some of the day's top news and insights from S&P Global Market Intelligence.

Going private

The other March-announced transaction to top $10 billion is a take-private involving Qualtrics International Inc. Private equity firm Silver Lake Technology Management LLC and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board agreed to purchase the software firm for $10.44 billion. Much of the purchase price is being funded by equity commitments from the buyers, but it does include a $1 billion debt component.

Private equity firms have plenty of equity dry powder to put to work. However, they often generate better returns when they can add leverage to the transactions. But banks have been less willing to provide the financing because some have had to hold the loans on their balance sheet or take losses when selling the debt to investors.

The recent turmoil in the bank sector will only make attaining financing more challenging.